ARTIST STATEMENT
My artworks are a queer exploration and imagined history of me and for myself, created with hope and desire to commune with others seeking connection. Until my early twenties, I was isolated from, and not allowed to connect with queer community or history. By utilizing queer visual language as a foundation to construct these pieces, I explore a disjointed placement fueled by a deep desire to belong while always feeling on the fringe of queer communities and society. I draw on queer cultural tropes and historical aesthetic lore interwoven with my own personal experiences navigating popularized ideas of what the queer experience is or is expected to be.
Each piece becomes a pin on a crafted queer cartography. This practice of making has allowed opportunities for me to heal through the use of humor and the deconstruction of old, closeted woes. I employ weaving, sewing, printmaking, and photography as the primary techniques in the creation of these queer maps. Using various textures, embellishments, and writing, I examine my found placement and desires connected to the chose queer trope. My current research situates Sloppy Craft as a guiding sensibility. I challenge the hierarchies of craft, art, sexuality, and gender through material exploration and the construction, deconstruction, and reconstruction of materials and artworks.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Laicee Blackwell, from Evansville Indiana, is a visual artist who creates large scale sculptural textiles. Using processes of sewing, weaving printmaking, embellishment, and mined queer histories, they create what they call “queer cartographies” which explore their placement within queerness. They hold a Bachelor of Science in Studio Art with an emphasis in Sculpture from the University of Southern Indiana and a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture and Expanded Media from Kent State University. At Kent State they were Instructor of Record for the Introduction to Sculptural Practices course.
Laicee’s work has been shown in exhibitions around the country. Recently they were invited to show their work in Praxis & Practice: Digital Weaving Exhibition 2023 in conjunction with the first International Praxis & Practice: Digital Weaving Conference in Kent & Cleveland, OH, and the upcoming second Mighty Real Queer Detroit Biennial Exhibition in June 2024.
© Laicee Blackwell