Every night’s another reason why I left it all
Every night’s another reason why I left it all pays homage to the dance floor and queer spaces through abstracted glass forms that play with movement and light. The work evokes different aspects of the gay club, from the physical; gestures of limbs dancing, and a trio of disco balls in the centre of the room; to the emotional, cultural environment the space creates; one that allows self expression and growth, and generates community outside of heteronormative exceptions and gaze. Blown bubbles have been stretched out echoing the paths of movement; are reminiscent of geminating seeds to highlight the self realisation that safe spaces support; whilst standing upright like arms dancing above the crowd.
The work engages with queer aesthetics, leaning into the feminine through frills and ribbons; the overly decorative through different textures and bubbles in the glass; and a camp celebratory excess. The densely packed plinth mimics the visual overwhelm of the dance floor, with lights, bodies, costumes, go go dancers and drag queens flooding the senses, unable to focus on just one thing.
The work speaks to a space that celebrates community and finding the true version of oneself; whilst acknowledging the grief and loss that comes with moving on from old ideas of home, and outdated, imagined futures. Breaking away from the traditional, formal shapes of glass blowing, the organic forms are unique, textured, and hold with them the memory of movement from the glass’s molten state. Existing between binaries of liquid and solid, art and craft, much like the in-between spaces of queer lived experiences. Bubbles blown unevenly into moulds create emotive folds through the glass; the glass not fitting the confines of the optic mould correctly, but creating sculptural form nonetheless, much like the creativity of involved in living queer lives against societal norms.