Queer Bricks: Agents of Creation and Destruction

Enamelled, laser engraved, kiln-formed glass
21 x 7 x 7cm (each)

These bricks are made of 22 layers of hand-enamelled and laser-engraved pieces of glass, stacked and fused together.  Fragile individual layers bond together to become strong.  They represent assaults visited upon queer bodies, but they can also be thrown in power.  Bricks can be used to build – but they can be also be used as weapons. 

For the pigment I've used gold pink enamel. I love how gold – that most valued of materials, makes pink glass, that queerest of colours.

I feel like these queer bricks are seeds for something larger.  To that end, I’m developing plans to collaborate with queer people around the world – to send the bricks out and see what creative (or destructive) responses they inspire in others.

I've also used them as the basis for a workshop with queer-identifying people in conjunction wiht my exhibition at The Glass Factory in Boda Glasbruk, Sweden.  A small group of us gathered to discuss the language we use to describe ourselves, and what is gained (and sometime limited) by doing so.  We also discussed the language used by others to describe us.  We each chose a word that we felt was used both as a slur, but that we claimed in pride, and used the hotshop to create our own bricks.