Catriona Clark
Sealed Memories, 2024
Enamel Paint on PLA with Metal Chain
40 cm x 30 cm
Sold
Flowers, poems, and letters were used to seal loving moments between Queer people, celebrating commitment as well as community. Through this wax stamp, I invite you to an imagined wedding...
Flowers, poems, and letters were used to seal loving moments between Queer people, celebrating commitment as well as community. Through this wax stamp, I invite you to an imagined wedding where, once concealed, love can be honoured. The relationships I made while reading archival letters taught me about rebuilding what is lost. Gaps in our generational histories are resisted by Queer people accessing and interpreting the material as our own. Oscar Wilde and Alfred Douglas shared a love for flowers- with his iconic green carnations, Wilde symbolised his identity and kinship to his gay peers at London Theatre shows. Douglas had an almost sapphic poetic affair with Wilde in floral writings. It is often overlooked in historical research, but by creating loud and proud works, I resist the misrepresentation of queer love.