Et In Kindadia Ergo
"ET IN KINKADIA ERGO"
(From Latin, translated in jest: "Yet even in Kinkade's world I am")
These satirical pieces were made for an exhibit back in 2005. These are the last of the series still in my possession. From this work began many years of work with collage and the Narratives and Embraces series grows directly out of this work.
In this series I mixed political/religious figures and gay erotica along with images by Thomas Kinkade. "Et In Kinkadia Ergo" references the work by Poussin in which death appears even in paradise, thus "Et in Arcadia Ergo". The work is done on small panels, referencing religious icons, using clippings from periodicals (TIME, Newsweek, Playgirl and a variety of gay porn magazines), and images of Kinkade's "Simple life" paintings. A cast of characters weaves throughout the pieces drawn from Christian iconography.
In my slightly more cynical version of Poussin's Arcadia (paradise) I take inspiration from the tradition of Goya's grotesques and political dissent artistic traditions. I have taken those I fear and made manifest their obsession to control my queer identity. In these queer icon panels, I now can laugh at how human they are and we inhabit the stage together—even in Kinkadia I am.
