Wine subscription, outdoor chair (styrofoam, acrylic, acetone, approx. 17 x 19 x 6 inches), 2023.
Cushion filler (rebonded fabric,12 x 10 1/2 inches), 2023.
Prednisone (film, 17min 15sec), 2023. Installed at the Mike Kelley Homestead, 2024.
In 1950, Arthur Nobile used the bacteria Corynebacterium simplex to transform cortisone into prednisone. I took 200 milligrams of it while traveling during the spring of 2023 to fight a rash that bloomed across my arms, torso, and legs.
Prednisone is a collaged film that explores how bodies translate anxiety into physical infections. It considers “narrative medicine” as a tool for healing psychosomatic pain and places it in conversation with Western medicine, which has often suppressed people’s—often queer people’s—ability to identify the roots of their wounds. It combines footage of landscapes with rotating horizon lines, pictures of a stress rash that appeared on my body in 2023, and my own childhood ephemera.
The film discusses the Best Little Boy In the World syndrome, coined in 1977 by Andrew Tobias that argues queer children hide the shame of their sexuality by being perfect at everything they do, which often leads to an anxious attachment to image and perception. Its score is a collection of four new audio works that distort, slow, and layer the traditional Gaelic song Dúlamán and Scottish-based Ossian’s Rory Dall's Sister's Lament (1984).
Filmed and shot by Daniel Sharp
Narrated by Daniel Sharp
Scored by Daniel Sharp
Prednisone (film, 17min 15sec, still), 2023.
Prednisone (film, 17min 15sec, still), 2023.
Prednisone (film, 17min 15sec, still), 2023.
Prednisone (film, 17min 15sec, still), 2023.
Prednisone (film, 17min 15sec, still), 2023.
Frame table three (acrylic on mat, 23 1/2 x 19 1/2 inches), 2023. Edition of one
Frame table one (acrylic on mat, 23 1/2 x 19 1/2 inches), 2023. Edition of one
Frame table two (acrylic on mat, 23 1/2 x 19 1/2 inches), 2023. Edition of one
Couch (styrofoam, 7 1/2 x 14 inches), 2023.
Living room one (carpet sample, 6 1/4 x 6 1/4 inches), 2023.
Rug (padding, 4 x 13 inches), 2023.
Métro one (photograph), 2023.
Street one (photograph), 2023.
Park one (photograph), 2023.
Street four (photograph), 2023.
Métro two (photograph), 2023.
Lot one (photograph), 2023.
Lot two (photograph), 2023.
Métro three (photograph), 2023.
Street three (photograph), 2023.
Street five (photograph), 2023.
Street two (photograph), 2023.
Room two (photograph), 2023.
Room one (photograph), 2023.
Imbolc morning (photograph), 2023.
Imbolc is an intradependent network of events that honors the start of spring with music, food, and gathering on the first weekend of February. The weekend-long celebration offers a warm counterpoint to the cold isolation the end of winter often brings, and provides intimate platforms for musicians, deejays, poets, chefs, community organizers, cultural workers, and neighbors to present works-in-progress, left-field paths, and care practices.
Imbolc, literally translating to “ewe’s milk” in Gaelic, is also the name of the Pagan festival indigenous to the Gaelic and Celtic peoples across Ireland and Scotland. It celebrates the goddess Brigid, and is held on the day between the winter solstice and spring equinox (often the first weekend of February). During the advent of Christianity and the colonization of Ireland and Scotland by the English, the festival was Christianized, sanitized, and stripped of its ancient roots celebrating the divine feminine, the return of the Sun and Spring, the first harvest, poetry, fire, healing, queer theory, and land-based care practices.
An Imbolc event was hosted on 2.3.23 in Detroit at 4806 Avery Street, hosted by Daniel Sharp. It featured food and poetry from Chicago-based poet Maura Ford, custom tea blends from Fargo-based artist and curator Tessa Beck, and deejay sets from Detroit-based artists Alex DePorre, Patrick Vandenplas, Miguel Cisne, Crystal Cause, and James Allen. Each Imbolc weekend is on the first weekend in February. Every attendee received a membership card to attend the next year, with the ability to invite non-members the next.
Imbolc lunch: salad, carrots, celery, yarrow and camomile tea (photograph), 2023.
Imbolc offering: lights, paper installation, space heater, and deejay booth (photograph), 2023.
Imbolc offering: lights, paper installation, space heater, and deejay booth (photograph), 2023.
Imbolc (graphic), 2023.