Oscar Andrew
Wood Notching Project
Professor Salas: Space & Materiality
Medium: Bending Plywood with Laser Etching
This project explores queerness and visibility or lack thereof. By viewing the project straight on, the images etched onto the wood are not visible and can only be viewed by walking around the work and lining up the split panels.
The queer model was promoted to respond to questions with her body for each pose. For the image of her standing crouched with her hands by her head, I asked her how she feels when she comes out to people. For the image of her sitting with legs stretched out, I asked her how she likes to act regardless of perceived identity.
The wood panels show the two opposite sides of queerness, feeling visible and feeling looked over or often ignored, the duality of an ‘invisible’ identity. Queerness means anything and everything you want it to mean and this duality is merely part of my experience and does not necessarily reflect the model’s experience. Only when one is invited to look more closely, moving around the sculpture, will someone begin to learn about a queer experience.
