ABOUT

KT is a queer artist from the Philadelphia area who is currently based out of Los Angeles, Aalifornia. They would describe their art as mixed media but will never stray far from their first love, analog photography.

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ARTIST STATEMENT:

Queer is an odd word, isn’t it? Well, it is supposed to be; the word perfectly reflects what it means. I love it when that happens, don’t you? But people seem so afraid of this silly little word, they shudder and they hide and they throw things at all the queerness that surrounds them. Do you think its the fact that queer starts with a Q? I like that theory, but things aren’t that simple. No, they are terrified that being queer means that you have found a way to break open the two by two box that gender has been crammed in to. They are scared by the very prospect that you may love someone, and I mean really love someone, who has the same genitalia as you. And they are especially scared when you love someone who has different genitalia than you but shares the same gender. They get really riled up when that happens. 

You see, so much of the queer experience is expected to be filled with pain. Queerness in the news is splattered with fear and undercut with tragedy. Yes, as before mentioned, queerness is constantly under attack and a part of being in this community involves protecting ourselves and one another, but it is so often forgotten what this care looks like on a day to day basis. To be queer is to fight and it is to protest, but it also to express love. It is romance, it is sex, and most importantly, it is friendship. 

Collective joy is a powerful form of resistance.

I create art that draws attention to this love and this care and this community. My practice focuses a lot on bringing my friends together in order to document what queerness means to them. Beyond just photographing queer subjects, my whole practice is centered around “queering” the image; I use alternative processes to bend/break/alter/transform my original portraits. I have quilted images together and I have made my own paper products to display my photography. My processes are meant to reflect how I am thinking about queerness; in short, everything is intentional yet nothing is traditional.

Saying that I am just a photographer feels incomplete because my practice is so much more than taking a picture. I use queer theory, gender theory, and identity politics to develop my project ideas and create my unusual processes. My photographic procedures make me a chemist, a writer, a storyteller, a sociologist, and a philosopher amongst many other things. The words that I use to describe my projects are essential, without them, the piece would be incomplete. Art does not belong in a box and neither do I.

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EDUCATION

Hamilton College, Clinton, NY — Bachelors of Arts

Aug 2019 - May 2023

Graduated with a dual degree in Literature and an Honors Studio Art.

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Burren College of Art, Ballyvaughan, IR — Study Abroad

Jan 2022 - Apr 2022

Studied Studio Art, Art History, and Irish History while attending the Burren.