Queer Ecology Hanky Project
Queer Ecology Hanky Project
July 12 – October 30, 2021
Opening Reception & Queer Dance Party took place Friday July 23,2021
Queer Ecology Hanky Project is a traveling exhibition and project with over one hundred twenty five artist bandanas from across North America–from Vancouver to Mexico City–organized and curated by Vanessa Adams and Mary Tremonte. Additional curatorial assistance for the Women’s Studio Workshop exhibition was provided by Andrea Narno, Eriko Hattori, and Bekezela Mguni.
Recent exhibitions of the project showcase a diverse array of artist responses to Queer Ecology—an area of inquiry which unites the study of biology, environment, and sexuality with a framework of queer theory–and a wide spectrum of print mediums and methods. The July 2021 exhibition at Women’s Studio Workshop is the fourth exhibition of the Queer Ecology Hanky Project and features 30 new artist hankies. Previous exhibitions took place at White Page Gallery, Minneapolis in 2019, the Irma Freeman Center in Pittsburgh, PA in 2020, and Maine College of Art in Portland, ME in 2021.
Queer Ecology Hanky Project has given us windows into divergent possibilities for gender and sexuality, models of resilience and resistance in a world that feels increasingly bleak. In recent years, queers of all genders and proclivities have expanded the definitions of the original gay hanky code—which emerged in the United States in the early 1970s, as a means for gay men to subtly communicate sexual desires—to include different bodies, identities, and activities. This show originates from a love of designing, printing, and distributing bandanas as wearable artwork, and a means to continue a queer communication of flagging, of finding affinity with plants, animals, mycelia, and each other.
Queer Ecology Hanky Project is full of artwork intended for activation – artist bandanas that will hopefully accompany walks in the woods, accessorize outfits at queer dance parties, bundle up foraged mushrooms, and start conversations. In that spirit, our past exhibitions have been accompanied by a hanky code dance party, Sappho: Hanky Situation, an artist market, a talk exploring the deeper points of Queer Ecology and a series of workshops exploring printmaking and hanky adornment techniques utilized by artists in the project.
The Queer Ecology Hanky Project is: Vanessa Adams, Eana Agoplan, Dana Aleshire, Finley Baker, Luca Bartlow, Douglas Baulos, Jacques Beas, Chris Bernstein, Andrea Pérez Bessin, Amanda Blix, Milica Bogetić, Aja Bond, Natasha Brennan, Ginger Brooks Takahashi, Jim Bullard, Eli Campanaro, MC Carey, Ruben Castillo, Devon Cohen, Jen Cooney, Molly Costello, Amy Cousins, Lorraine Cruz, J. Avery Theodore Daisey, TK Dinh, Alek de Dóchas, Heather Douglas, Jessika Fancy, Avram Finkelstein, Zeph Fishlyn, Kerri Flannigan, Pidge Fletching, Keith Foster, Carlee Freeman, Lindsey French, Matta Ghaly, Clement Hil Goldberg, Stephen Grebinski, Mia Greenwald, Jacq Groves, L Hammel, Ian Hanesworth, Mel Hardy, Luce Hartsock, Eriko Hattori, E Henderson, Tristan Higginbotham, Eli Howey, Meg Houston, Eileen Jimenez, Hana Jimenez, Katie Kaplan, Devon Kelley-Yurdin, Karey Kenst, Caroline Kern, Joy Tabernacle KMT, Yang Zhen Lee, Rowan Leek, Levi LaBruzzy / 2headedcoralsnake, Malachi Lily, Sam Loewen, Selena Loomis, Ayden Love, Alyx Rene Lunada, Soren Lundi, Drea Marcos, Georgia McCandlish, Sarah McDermott, Kate McNeely, Bekezela Mguni, A-B Moore, Kate Morales, Émilie Mulcahey, Steven Muñoz, Mary Murph, Pilar Nadal, Andrea Narno, Celeste Neuhaus, Lex Non Scripta, Jayla Patton, Jason Patten, Zackary Petot, Chris Pilewski, Em Pike, Nevena Pilipovic-Wengler, Cee Please, Breydon Prioleau, Feliks Pyron, Claire Ragland, A. Reid, Jenna Reid, Syr Reifsteck, Heidi Andrea Restrepo Rhodes, Rigel Richardson, Nora Rickey, Quinn Rivenburgh, Avery Rose, Erin Roussel, E.T. Russian, Lucy Satzewich, August Schultz, Nick Shick, H Simon, Willy Smart, Marta Syrup, Lou Tandon, Corinne Teed, Trash Tmblweed, Frankie Toan, Amalia Kalisz Tonsor, Mary Tremonte, Anna Wagner, Blue Wallick, Vivien Wise, Summer Wood, Natalie Woodlock, Jon Woolley and Erin Zona.
