Processing Gender Aspirations

Homosocial, a multimedia project created by Brian Van Camerik, celebrates same-gendered couples and queer individuals of the past by transforming found, vintage photographs into objects which represent queer gender and sexuality. Processing Gender Aspirations centers around a black and white photograph of a child of indeterminate gender with a bob haircut, long-collared shirt, skirt-like uniform, knee-high stockings, and Mary-Jane shoes. This photo is scrapbooked within microchip-shaped lavender paper, and gold paper wiring connects the photograph to two sub-processors. The two sub-processors read “bending the” and “binary,” respectively. This circuitry appears on green marbled paper that emulates the appearance of a circuit board. By combining the stereotypically male field of technology and stereotypically female field of crafting into a singular work, Processing Gender Aspiration collapses both binaries in art, all to represent an individual who also may not fit the gender binary.
Van Camerik earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 2014. In 2014, he was recipient of the Henry Schiedt Memorial Travel Scholarship from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He and Homosocial are currently based in the SF Bay Area.

Homosocial

2022