Saint Sebastian is My Muse, 2022
Inspired by Guido Reni’s multiple paintings of Saint Sebastian, these are the first in an ongoing series of photographs of queer masculine people posing as Saint Sebastian.
The series also takes inspiration from the photos of Yukio Mishima as Saint Sebastian taken by Kishin Shinoyama.
35mm film photographs
Jhesus Maria, Sebastiane and The Baptist, 2022
A commission by OOF gallery, to extend Jhesus Maria, 2022 into a triptych with two more scarves. One for Saint Sebastian and one for John the Baptist
Both religious figures were chosen due to the frequent queer interpretation of their stories.
Acrylic wool, 18.5cm x 164cm
Jhesus Maria, 2022
Inspired by the banner that Joan of Arc would take into battle, emblazoned with the phrase Jhesus Maria and decorated with images of angels, fields of tulips and the globe, Karkut-Law has created a football scarf to show their loyalty to and affiliation with Joan of Arc.
The tribalism that football scarves represent is akin to the medieval cultism that Joan’s banner meant to her followers. As an item of clothing with highly masculine associations, a football scarf also represents the masculinity Joan chose to display in her clothing choices that gave her personal strength but also ultimately resulted in her execution.
Acrylic wool, 18.5cm x 164cm
Sebastiane (For Derek), 2022
Sebastiane (For Derek), provides the viewer with the opportunity to transform themselves into Saint Sebastian himself as he is most often represented, studded with arrows and if they chose an expression somewhere between agony and ecstasy.
Saint Sebastian has for centuries held a position within the queer community as a proxy patron saint. In part because he is often depicted as androgynous youthful figure who is perhaps enjoying his penetration with arrows a little too much. Later his role as a protector against plague, imbued him with more significant meaning for the gay community after the onset of the HIV/AIDS crisis.
Countless gay artists have created dedications to Saint Sebastian, including Derek Jarman who chronicled Saint Sebastian’s exile in his 1976 film Sebastiane. Sebastiane (For Derek) is dedicated to Jarman.
Wood, mirror, acrylic paint, wire, pheasant feathers, 43cm x 68cm x 156cm
Magna Mitre Pretiosa, 2021
Magna Mitra Pretiosa utilises the form of a papal hat, super-sized and super-camped to create a queer version of a religious space.
The audience are invited to interact with the mitra, stepping through the curtains into a glittering interior. A space for meditation, confession, conversation, or anything you else desire. The interior draws on the anonymity and contemplation of a confessional booth, without the shame or need to repent. Whilst there is the possibility for reflection, the space is also humorous, camp, and queer - concepts that are not so readily found within the doctrine of the Catholic Church.
Mixed media, 122cm x 122cm x 244cm
Angel in Quarantine, 2020
Angel in Quarantine is an exploration of the performance of gender when in isolation. Utilising the image of an angel to conjure camp, femininity and queerness.
A musing on Judith Butler'‘s theory of the performativity of gender, that because gender is performative therefore there can be no gender identity before the gendered acts, because the acts are continuously constituting the identity.
The forced display of domesticity, ablution and ultimately femininity in Angel in Quarantine expose how acts done in private are never truly free of performance and therefore gender performance is inherent in everyone.
Film, 9 minutes 24 seconds