Parishioners (To Know Thy Neighbor), 2024

Acrylic Ink on Faux Velvet and Canvas/Xerox Printed Supplemental Zine

Informed by lived experiences of growing up Queer within the Catholic Church, 𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘴 (𝘛𝘰 𝘒𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘛𝘩𝘺 𝘕𝘦𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘣𝘰𝘳) implements appropriated portraiture from a church directory to encourage the viewer to examine the complex relationships between love, hate, and persecution within Christian spaces. The titular parishioners, uncanny and stark-white simulacrums of church archetypes, fill two roles: Cain and Abel, the striker and the struck, the observer and the observed.

“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”
-Matthew 22:37-39

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.” -Psalms 139:23-24

“I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars, and cast your carcasses on the lifeless forms of your idols; and My soul shall abhor you.”
-Leviticus 26:30