Description

STEVEN KAPLAN-PISTINER (MFA)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, PROVIDENCE

RISD (RHODE ISLAND SCHOOL OF DESIGN)

bundles and blanks and binds and bends

When made other, a body comes under stress. To pass, in queer dialogue, is to be seen as the conventional or the expected. Passing is an allowance to exist without constant fear of retaliation for being your authentic self. Passing is a privilege that is not afforded to all bodies and is also a practice of potential erasure. When I approach the wood, the knots are already within. As I carve, the knots, wounds, lighten, loosen. I call them Partially Undone; that’s all they can ever be. They are objects of tension that bind nothing in place but their own existence. They are wooden and unmoving, there is no moment of resolution, only development as they are lived with – and this is how we work against alienation.