Fairy Collage Quilt

From the series "Paper Quilt and Collage"

In his “Paper Quilt and Collage” series, John Paradiso explores “growing old as a gay man.” He combines techniques of quilting, inspired in part by the AIDS Memorial Quilt, with seductive images of the male body to reflect on his generation’s experiences of surviving the HIV/AIDS crisis at its most devastating period for gay men in America. Paradiso appliquéd floral fabric to nine small wooden panels, in some cases layering them over glossy magazine images of a muscular male nude. With “fairy” in the artwork’s title and the “pansy” motif of the fabric, Paradiso invokes terms long used to disparage gay men as effeminate and weak. Here the hardy pansies and powerful male physique combine to suggest a different symbolism—one of resilience and strength.

John Paradiso

2014

Image courtesy of the artist

Found image, fabric, and sharpie, on wood panels with UV inhibitor varnish

9 segments, each 6 x 6 x 1 inches; Installed: 19 x 19 x 1 inches