Dirtstar 2011: Take Root – A Sustainable Queer Art Project
Congratulations to curator Caitlin Sweet and the ‘Dirtstar 2011: Take Root’ team, who reached their goal of $3000 at Indiegogo.com.
They raised money to give to the artists so that queer art will be sustainable art!
Their art project is a part of the National Queer Arts Festival i San Francisco, USA. Here is the story about the art project ‘Dirtstar 2011: Take Root’ as published at Indiegogo.com:
Our Story
“Trash transformed. Seeds sown. Queer family forged. Dirtstar 2011 will Take Root in a May- June residency at Tenderlion National Forest/ Luggage Store Annex as a part of the National Queer Arts Festival. Weekly consciousness raising, a visual arts show, bike tours, installation will build to a final event of performance, food, ritual and action celebrating queer sustainability.
We are trash. As queers, marginalized people, refugees, shape shifters, outcasts; as, essentially, “the other,” we have a long-cherished tradition of living on the fringes and surviving off the metaphorical and actual castoffs of this heterosexist, racist, classist, sexist, ableist culture, a culture seeped in destruction and oppression. As gay failures, fierce and fiercely proud of our resistance to assimilationist politics, we get to pick and choose what we carry on with us and who we call family. We get to create new ways of being in this world and with each other as we unlearn, unpack, and heal from the dominant culture. This is the magic of radical queer existence.
In the tradition of camp, of taking an image, a performance, imagery from the mainstream and twisting, recoding, transforming it to make it serve a new queer purpose, Take Root is a visual art show centered on queer found object art. What have you dug out of the trash, picked up off the street, stolen, what tradition, family story have you retold to reveal the true meanings? This show is about honoring the lived experience of queers, honoring our process of having to shift through the detritus of this culture to find ourselves, our herstories, our culture, and each other. This is a show about how we sustain ourselves, our culture, our aesthetic, our spirituality, and the world around us. The work showcased will consist of artwork that utilizes found objects, re/appropriated imagery, and recontextualized traditions, in the process revealing the way that this work pushes queer culture and art forward. This show is about the space that happens after survival, how we grow roots into the land and spread like the beautiful weeds we are.
We are proudly showing the following artists:
Ector Garcia, Jen Lorang, Ariel Springfield, Gabby Miller, Levon Fox, Jamie Q, Adee Roberson, Flo McGarrell, Sarah Biscarra-Dilley, Micah Bazant and Lewis Wallace, Siobhan Flood, Allyson Mitchell, Lee Balan, Dinah Nova and James, and Anthea Black with Mr&Mrs Keith Murray as the Glitter Twins.
The show opens June 2nd 7-9pm at the Tenderloin National Forest (509 Ellis St, San Francisco). The show runs until June 28 check our website for workshops, gallery hours, and updates http://dirtstar2011.wordpress.com
June 19th 5-7pm is Dirt Star Performance night with m.a. brooks, Amar/a, Coral Short, Ivy McClelland and more. Plus Queer Love for Food, farm stands, and seed bombs.”
Related Links
The Dirtstar website
Read about the artists of the show
National Queer Arts Festival
See a video from The Dirtstar opening reception