Between Conventional Borders: Excerpts from the {Queer} + {Metals} Project

Abstract

This Statement of Practice presents {Queer} + {Metals}, a multilayered project that engaged an international cohort of artists in a conversation about the intersection of queerness and metalsmithing. The purpose of the project was to crowdsource the question: What is queer metals? This Statement of Practice comprises three sections: an explanatory framework of the project; an interview between Rebekah Frank and Dauvit Alexander about the exhibition; and excerpts of the voices of eight participants in the project, accompanied by images of their work, who shared their thoughts with Frank during a recorded video conversation.

Keywords:

• queer
• nonbinary
• metalsmithing
• jewellery
• blacksmithing
• sculpture
• intersectional
• digital residency
• social practice

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rebekah Frank

Project Organizers

Rebekah Frank (she/her) focuses her creative practice on steel and her writing practice on material-based artists with a focus on queer makers. San Francisco, USA.

Dauvit Alexander (he/him) creates jewellery primarily aimed at men, using what would traditionally be seen as masculine materials—iron and steel—sourced from traditionally masculine backgrounds. Birmingham, UK.

Deirdre Figueiredo (she/her) is Director of Craftspace and works as a curator and manager as in the field of contemporary visual arts, craft and museums. Birmingham, UK.