When June T. Sanders was curating her latest exhibit alongside five other artists, she said she was curious about things the contemporary art world rejects.
“I think the art world in general doesn't care about rural artists. I think there's this bias that if you don't live in a city, then your art isn't up to par, or it's not conceptual enough, or it's not aesthetically mature,” she said.
Her upcoming collaborative exhibit, titled “Devotions,” highlights that same kind of folk art that might be dismissed elsewhere, Sanders said.
The exhibit also connects that folk art with the experience of queer identity and religion. And it challenges stereotypes about where queer people belong, and their relationships to rural life and spirituality.
“I had a lot of ruralness in my upbringing, and I feel like I was sold this idea that I had to go to a city to be who I wanted to be,” Sanders said. “I believed that thing that got sold to me, and it took me a long time to realize it wasn't true.”
Sanders’ contributions are blended with the work of artists Jeffry Mitchell, Adrienne Economos Miller, Rachel Svinth, Elva Bennett and Abigail Hansel. The artists hail from Portland, Milwaukee and the Palouse region.
Unlike many other shows with various artists, the exhibit will focus on only one collaborative project. The collaborative work comes together as an altar that celebrates heart and home, Sanders said. Altars, she said, make as much sense when talking about queerness as they do religion.
“You're sort of creating this space to hope and create and manifest. And you're sort of trying to pull from something otherworldly to ground yourself or to envision a future,” Sanders said. “I feel like that's what we're doing with our bodies and our lives and communities and romance. All these things, all the time, as queer people.”
For Svinth, an artist who’s based in the Palouse, the exhibition brings together ideas of connection and communion with land and spirit.
“Taking the time to be with (a) place, as it is here and now, while also recognizing that our bodies and our being is a part of this too,” Svinth wrote. “Making ritual from this way of being. That is an embodiment of queerness to me.”
LGBTQ+ people can have complicated relationships with religion, Sanders said.
And yet, the need for connection and communion remains, she said. She talks about the Quaker meetings and Sacred Harp meetings — a sort of religious singing tradition — which she attends. Often, it is alongside other queer and trans friends.
“At least in my circles, I see a lot of people coming back to that. It's like, ‘Oh, I actually do need this. This is a missing part of my life and how I formulate my identity and my community and my ethos.’”
“Devotions" will open for one night from 6 to 9 p.m. on June 5 at the Kolva-Sullivan Gallery in Spokane.
