‘Patron Saint’ Exhibit
YEAR: 2019
TYPE: Temporary
LOCATION: Distillery Gallery, Boston, MA
COLLABORATORS: Jamall Osterholm, Georden West and Meesh Zucker
_Description
On Friday March 29th, the Distillery Gallery became a heavenly red tide of carnations as media artist Georden West presented her first solo installation, Patron Saint. Designed and built in collaboration with MIT’s Meesh Zucker, the piece featured over 7,200 live flowers encasing a fashion film and an interactive wall that required participants to kneel before it in order to see beyond. The temporal nature of the installation reflects the ephemerizing perception of queer identity. As the maintenance of memory and memorial of queer history is relegated to the responsibility of queer communities, West and Zucker created a moment in time-space to transport and immerse gallery attendees in a space resembling curbside memorials and natural grave sites.
With skyrocketing numbers of single-incident, hate-based acts against individuals based on gender expression or sexual orientation and growing erasure of queer identities from the national census, their work felt imperative. West and Zucker responded by filling the empty white space with thousands of red flowers, simultaneously building an altar for new queer worship and a memorial for those lost to or facing discrimination based on gender expression or sexual orientation. West and Zucker demonstrate where safe space and sacred place for marginalized identities coincide.
_Press
”4 Performing and Visual Arts Events Happening in Boston This Week”, Hoodline
”New Faces in Film and Fashion”, StyleBoston
”Patron Saint @ Distillery Gallery 3/29” , Boston Hassle
”Patron Saint”, The Distillery Gallery
_The Film