Queer in Bloom, 2021
embroidery thread, fabric, resin, wood
Artspace Inc., 100 Arthur Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba
https://art-space.ca/vesti_art/
Queer in Bloom is about coming into your own and blossoming as a queer individual, whatever that may look like. Each person requires the right conditions to come to terms with and be comfortable with their identity and go from seed, to bud, to bloom. Throughout history flowers have had many different meanings to many different groups of people, but there is a lesser-known queer reading of flowers that provides insight into the history and mythology of queer people. In my artistic practice I reference these floral symbols to signal to other queer people that this art is queer, although it may not look it at first glance, much as a Victorian gentleman would signal to other men his queerness by wearing a green carnation on his lapel.
The resin domes represent a way of “preserving” the embroidered blooms and act as a curio cabinet of sorts, displaying, and visually amplifying these gathered specimens of queer myth and symbolism. Furthering the historical connection of the symbolism of these works and alluding to the way many queer people are still seen more as curiosities, strange things to be looked at from afar, than actual people. Queer people have always existed and will continue to persevere through the strife and struggles that are put before us. The culmination of this work is a celebration of queer identity and queer history through the symbolism of flowers.
As previously mentioned, a carnation dyed green signified homoeroticism and aestheticism, which was popularized by Oscar Wilde in the late 1800s. In 1892 Wilde had one of the actors and many of his friends wear green carnations on their lapels to the opening night of his play “Lady Windemere’s Fan”. This led to Wilde and his friends wearing a green carnation on their lapel as a subtle way to identify each other. It is thought that because it was a (natural) flower dyed an unnatural colour it was hinting at “unnatural” same-sex love, which was illegal at the time and was considered highly “unnatural” and dangerous.
In Greek myth Hyacinthus was a beloved of the god Apollo and was struck down by Zephyrus, the west wind, who also loved Hyacinthus and was jealous of the pair. Zephyrus had decided that if he could not have Hyacinthus as a lover, then Apollo would not have him either. Apollo could not save Hyacinthus’ life from the mortal would, but he transformed his body into a beautiful flower to immortalize his beauty. Hyacinthus later came to be seen as a patron of homoerotic love.
As a pair to the hyacinth, the marigold has always been associated with the sun, often called “the herb of the sun”, relating to Apollo who is the god of the sun. This bloom symbolizes, passion, creativity, and despair or grief over the loss of love. Marigolds were often used as an offering to the gods across several religions around the world. I chose this flower to symbolize Apollo and his love for Hyacinthus because of the meaning of the marigold, as well as it’s association with the sun.
The pansy is symbolic of love, passion, remembrance, and reflection. By the late nineteenth century, the pansy had become, primarily in England and North America, a signifier of homoerotic love. And in the early to mid twentieth century “pansy” became a derogatory term for an effeminate gay man. The word, and flower, were later reclaimed by radical gay men in the 1970s as a positive symbol of gay love. In the 1920s and 30s drag performers were often referred to as “pansy performers” because of their colourful clothing.
The rose is a well-known symbol of beauty, love, and passion and is often gifted between couples of all genders and sexualities to show their love for another. Though it also has more specific queer meanings as well. The rose is associated in Greek mythology with many deities linked to same-sex intimacy or transgender identity such as Adonis, Aphrodite, Dionysus, and Eros. The rose was also often given by the Greek lover to his beloved as a courting gift, thus the rose came to represent the eromenos (beloved). As a symbol of Aphrodite, roses, along with violets and other flowers and herbs, were woven into garlands and worn by the women of Sappho’s thiasos (spiritual house) on the island of Lesbos. In medieval alchemy the rose became symbolic of androgyny or gender transition. In Middle Eastern and later in European and Western symbolism the rosebud became a signifier of the anus and anal intercourse. In twentieth-century lesbian symbolism, the rose signifies the vagina and love between women, as evidenced in the writings of Gertrude Stein, Judy Grahn, and other prominent woman-loving writers of the time.
Saffron is symbolic of healing, nobility, passion, and magic. Throughout many cultures saffron was an important ingredient in magic. As a spice it was often used in special cakes made to cause one person to fall in love with another. As a dye, it was used to colour garments. In Greco-Roman times saffron was a colour normally worn by women, but “womanish saffron” was also attributed to Crocus, a male youth with whom the god Hermes fell in love and was further associated with male gender variance and homoeroticism. It was also a colour often worn by the gender variant, or transgendered, priests and followers of Heracles (on the isle of Cos), or Dionysus. In the pre-Islamic Middle Eastern world, saffron was considered a powerful aphrodisiac and was employed in lesbian lovemaking.
Violets are commonly associated with lesbian love and were often incorporated into garlands, along with other flowers, worn by the poet Sappho and the women of her thiasos, or spiritual household, on the island of Lesbos. In the European Middle Ages, violets signified loyalty and were exchanged by friends and lovers in the springtime. In the twentieth century, violets, and their colour (a light purple, or lavender) came to be associated with effeminacy and male homosexuality in Western Europe, North America, Guatemala, and elsewhere.