Queer Love is Sacred: Kink belong at pride
More Sacred Love/Sacred Lives artist statements
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Sacred Love/Sacred Lives is a mixed-media embroidery art project I began at the end of 2022. I shared an initial round of artist statements in November 2023. Since then I have continued to work on artist statements for each piece in the series as and am publishing the statements here as I complete them.
Don’t let anyone tell you your life and who you love and how you love is anything less than sacred.
Queer Love is Sacred, Pink & Red Hanky designs
Mixed-media: 6” hoops, scrap denim, stick on rhinestones, printed hankies and embroidery floss
The hanky code, or flagging, originated in the United States in the 1970s as a way for gay and bisexual men to communicate their queerness and sexual interests and fetishes. The code spread across English-speaking colonial countries throughout the 70s and 80s, and has been adopted by others in the 2SLGBTQI+ community.
Flagging isn’t just about sex, it’s also about self-expression and belonging in times when cops would regularly harass, brutalize, and arrest queer people for existing in public. It was a way to see and be seen safely when society criminalised queer existence. In making these pieces I wanted to honour the ways queer folk communicate through codes1 in order to find community and show camaraderie, particularly during times of increased surveillance and policing.
Queer Love is Sacred, Leather Hat
Mixed-media: 6” hoop, fabric marker, high gloss paint, stick on rhinestones and embroidery floss
When I was first of legal drinking age I found community through the handful of gay bars in the city where I was born and raised. There were a few dance clubs, some more lounge-type pub places, and the leather bar. The leather bar was just on the edge of the neighbourhood where I grew up, so it was a nice close-to-home option for me when I wanted to drink and not pay for a long cab ride home.
My memories of the leather bars are of bears and leather daddies buying me gin and tonics or tequila sunrises. We played pool and they regaled me with stories of their misspent youth. I found such comfort and care from these queer elders and what they had to teach me about the history of our community. Looking back on this time, I realise that all those men were survivors of the AIDS epidemic who watched friends and lovers die en mass because of cruel Conservative policy and government neglect. As I have learned more about queer history and resistance, I’ve learned how kink was often a way for these men to engage in sex safely at a time when hostility from the cis het community towards the queer community was at its worst.
It was also in that leather bar that I first encountered Tom of Finland’s art, which I immediately fell in love with.2
Kink absolutely belongs at Pride.
Rest in Peace The Eagle, the only leather bar my city had, which closed in 2012.
I am seeking to collaborate with other artists for this series.
If you have an idea for a design that would work for this series, please get in touch! You can email me: hello ‘at’ kschatch ‘dot’ com or look at the online gallery of this project to learn more.
Light pink for dildos, and red for fisting, if you were curious and didn’t want to look it up. Whether you are a giver or receiver depends on what side you wear it on.
If you can find it, there is an amazing biopic about Tom of Finland that I cannot recommend enough.