John Paradiso, "Fairy Collage Quilt"

JOHN PARADISO
Born in Albany, New York, 1962
Currently lives and works in Brentwood, Maryland 

From the series "Paper Quilt and Collage"

Fairy Collage Quilt
2014
Found image, fabric, and sharpie, on wood panels with UV inhibitor varnish

In his “Paper Quilt and Collage” series, DC-based artist 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, in particular, on his generation’s experiences of surviving the HIV/AIDS crisis at its most devastating period for gay men in America in the 1980s and early 1990s.

To make Fairy Collage Quilt, 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 strength and resilience.

Student Committee Selection 2014–2015
Contemporary Art Purchasing Program
The Adele H. Stamp Student Union—Center for Campus Life