My work alchemizes queer history. I translate back and forth between material languages and archival images to build spaces that queer time. In one painting, the forgotten history of a women’s prison is caged in by the fence of the garden that now stands in its place; in another, the collaged sites of ACT UP actions collapse architectural structures into patterns of memory and power. 

In this body of work, a broad range of subjects is brought together through an obsessive purple lens that operates on two levels within the work: conjuring a rich queer history from Sappho’s violets to the Lavender Menace, and steeping the work in a mood of mysticism and intimacy.

Through a hybrid approach using images from the archive, literature, and memory, my paintings coagulate into a precarious state where past and present combine. This practice extends into textile, ceramic, and drawing, collapsing material hierarchies. Mosaic patterns become textiles which become motifs in oil paint. The hybridizing of history through images from the archival images and images from life memory opens up a place in the imaginary. This imaginative process is a tool for liberation, a moment to rethink and reshape what comes next.

jessiolarsch@gmail.com

@jessiolarsch