XX
Handmade paper works of linen pulp paint on cotton and abaca sheets, 12’ x 10’, 2023 at Golstani Gallery, Düsseldorf, Germany
XX
Handmade paper works of linen pulp paint on cotton and abaca sheets, 12’ x 10’, 2023
In his large-scale installation ”XX“, John Shorb has created a wall of handmade paper works, a combination of abstraction with transcribed letters of Thom Gunn, a poet and teacher most well-known for his poems on the AIDS crisis of the 1980s in San Francisco. In these letters, Shorb sees an ebullient refusal against the tragedy of Gunn’s time, and he renders Gunn’s words essentially unreadable, capturing instead the difficulty of comprehending the intimacy and devastation of his time. Each work stands as a cipher-like testament to queer life at that time, with its codes and secrets necessary for mere survival. It also acts a love letter to those lives and their hopes for the generations ahead.
XX at Golestani Gallery, Düsseldorf, Germany
June 17-July 21, 2023
XX at Golestani Gallery, Düsseldorf, Germany
June 17-July 21, 2023
XX at Golestani Gallery, Düsseldorf, Germany
June 17-July 21, 2023
XX at Golestani Gallery, Düsseldorf, Germany
June 17-July 21, 2023
XX, Golestani Gallery, Düsseldorf, Germany
June 17-July 21, 2023
This series of screenprints, made in 2017, is drawn from a selection of 19th century American newspapers collected from historical archives. With titles such as "The American Citizen“ or "The Weekly Caucasian“ these newspapers reflect the extreme identity politics of their day, echoing the current state of today’s fraught media landscape—a pointed commentary on the supposed objectivity of the news and continual issues of misinformation and propaganda.