Prayers on Fire is a solo exhibition juxtaposing sports based masculine imagery against queer based religious ideology. Through intaglio, cyanotype, relief and drawing based printed 2d works on paper, wrestlers are collaged; they are distorted into submissive poses that harken towards the spiritual. The work is meant to create a direct connection between the aggressive nature of sports and solitude of masculinity by introducing queerness and religious contemplation.
Violence through sports and competition is viewed as safe whereas violence outside the arena is a crime. What propagates our need to see and facilitate masculine aggression within these acceptable guidelines and what happens when they take on a revised context? The prayers that influence the titles of most of the work in the exhibition are prayers of a submissive nature. They explore the wrestlers pose into acts of contrition and openness to and through vulnerability.
The exhibition will be featured in Laramie, WY 26 years after the death of Matthew Shepard. Although legislation has been passed for processing hate crimes, there remains a disparity between how queer hate is manifested through challenging masculinity and accompanying activities like sports. Our culture celebrates and indulges in controlled physical contact sports; we embrace male brutality within these arenas. Masculinity, when re-contextualized, elevates this brutality to savagery. This exhibition is interested in starting that conversation and asking why?
Edward J. Kempf defined "gay panic" as a condition of "panic due to the pressure of uncontrollable perverse sexual cravings". The defense of gay panic is often introduced and barred from cases involving queer based hate crimes. Prayers on Fire questions what underlying curiosities exist within masculine sports culture violence. How do we resolve the threat of this panic if not through opening the doors for discourse between these positions of affirmative and submission.
The artist, Kelwin Coleman, will be at Gem City Nights at the Downtown Farmer’s Market on September 6 from 5-7 PM hosting a community workshop. Find the Laramie Plains Civic Center tents at the South end of the market by the stage.
