Joseph Mercier – Desperate Gestures

This place is post Whitney

And post Michael.

This place is Paris Hilton’s sex tape.

And Britney’s breakdown

This place is a dream of a dream of the American Dream

And where dreams go to die.

And where dreams go to make their mommies proud.

This project is working with the idea that any attempt to be present can’t be separated from a culture of convenience, a fetish for the new, and a commodification of the ‘now’ that permeates every cell of contemporary life and so any attempt to present might be something of a desperate gesture. We feel backwards through queer histories, and reach forward to horizons of possibility. Drawing on queer subcultures, counter cultures and pop cultures, we make a spectacle of ourselves.

We may look trivial and cheap, camp and pathetic, but these are the materials of queer world building and we demand they be taken seriously. Or maybe not. Perhaps too much is lost if we get taken too seriously.

This is a work in progress showing of the work.