The Book of Lamentations is heavy on martyrdom and the veneration of “our saint”. It opens with this image I got to do for the wonderful @uk.loved.collective (who’s work I have admired since joining Instagram). They were exhibiting a show in London I would have loved to see which was part of their ongoing beautiful work about body positivity and celebrating, in particular, the gay bear community. Check them out. We couldn’t get there because of lockdown and we’ve been pretty seriously shielding even when restrictions were loosened. Although I couldn’t attend they kindly let me submit a Postcard to the little parallel show in response. My default position is Saint Sebastian (No?! Really?) so here we see him depicted as wearing a blue Perry. Since he is also the patron of Athletes and the Perry is loaded with gay resonance that seemed reasonable. The show was called “London Loves Dick” so the Latin around the halo translates as “London always loved Dick”, as though even a martyred Roman soldier from centuries ago would have understood that. The second image is just the placement of that with the real relic mentioned yesterday. The third page shows the face masks I had ordered with tiny images of them being a black and red Antifa (printed out here only as black), a renaissance Sebastian in his function as protector from Plague, a Tibetan Buddha’s mouth (which I imagined would make me look more enlightened but actually gives a look of crazy lipstick Boy George when I wear it and it wraps strangely around my actual features) and finally the original Act Up! Silence =Death Logo. These are placed inexplicably next to a beautiful young man from a Tesco advert and then the final page shows these things, a remarkable Sebastian sculpture from India (heavily influenced by Hindu images) and a heart shaped ex voto. #sketchbookdrawing #sketchbook #londonlovesdick #saintsebastian #facemask #exvoto #london #2020visions #queerart #queerartist #mertz #randomnonsense (at Liverpool) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cbxg3YXs6_j/?utm_medium=tumblr
