Mall Kiosk at the End of the World

is a series of wearable sculptures for a near-future drag family. The series is ongoing and includes a group of pieces that are assembled and reassembled into looks, forming a lending library of dystopian accessories and garments that go out to performers in the Chicago area.

 

These fantasies emanate from the world of queer club fashion and are tools for reimaging physical and social realities. They use the concreteness of art to actualize possible futures in the here and now through performances and images of not-yet-realized fashions.

 

The finished work spirals out: there's the sculptures themselves, their incorporation into looks by queer and trans models and performers, and the transformation enacted in the process, generating confidence and/or complication, highlighting the mutability of identity and making plain the path between my collaborators’ daily selves and fantastical, divine selves. This transformation has shifted the work from object or image into an experience focused on revelatory self-creation and gender euphoria. Mall Kiosk at the End of the World continues to grow as more pieces are made and existing pieces circulate to become new looks, images, and performances, sometimes with, but more often beyond, the artist's control.

​