AND THEN HE KISSED ME… (2020) returns the performed hyper, at times toxic, masculinity of gay male leather culture to a queered space and representation through an abstraction of the male body dressed in leather that evokes female genitalia. Playing with the visual and linguistic puns of leather hides, human skin, lips (labia), and the intimacy of kissing, the imagery embraces the sensuality of leather as the basis for the gay subculture while challenging its celebration of hypermasculine swagger.
BOOTBLACK (2013) and CUIR (WRAPPED IN THE SKIN OFF HIS BACK) (2014) are companion Mandala works that quietly revel in the dark sensuality of the seductive, the ambiguous, and the carnal taboo. Core to both series is the fetish of black leather as an iconic symbol of rebellion, danger, and power. The ornate, sinewy forms suggest the wrapping and melding of human bodies around each other.