Fruiting Bodies
March 2, 2019 through May 12, 2019
The exhibition will include new artworks by Bearnot shown alongside archival objects from the LA&M collection, including important artifacts from Chuck Renslow and Sam Steward, as well as the personal erotic correspondence collection of Robert Gaylor, recently acquired by the LA&M.
Whether shed, trimmed, or plucked, hair off the body is matter out of place. (1) It can be abject, kinky, and sentimental. It is a trace that persists. A fragment. A poem. Both forensic and abstract, hair in the archive simultaneously proposes proximity and anonymity. (2) The fruit of queer bodies.
Andrew Bearnot (MFA, University of Chicago) is a self described “materialist”: he thinks with and through the substance of things. Informed by a background in material science (ScB, Brown University) and glass (BFA, Rhode Island School of Design), Bearnot explores moments of transcendence in the everyday. He was awarded fellowships from Fulbright and the American-Scandinavian Foundation for research on glass-making traditions in Sweden and Denmark and has been an artist-in-residence at the Hyde Park Arts Center (Chicago, IL), Museum of Arts and Design (New York, NY), Marble House Project (Dorset, VT), and Creative Glass Center of America (Millville, NJ). Recent solo exhibitions include LONG DIVISION at Wedge Projects and SCREEN TEST in the Drawing Room at the Arts Club of Chicago.