Mar 23rd 2019

Andrew Bearnot: FRUITING BODIES

@ Leather Archive and Museum (LA&M)

6418 N Greenview Ave, Chicago, IL 60626

Opening Saturday, March 23rd, from 4PM - 7PM

On view through Sunday, May 12th

Whether shed, trimmed, or plucked, hair off the body is matter out of place [1]. It can be abject, kinky, and sentimental. It is a trace that persists. A fragment. A poem. Both forensic and abstract, hair in the archive simultaneously proposes proximity and anonymity. The fruit of queer bodies.

[1] Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger: An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo, Routledge, 1966.

The Leather Archives and Museum (LA&M) is pleased to present FRUITING BODIES, a solo exhibition by Andrew Bearnot in the museum’s Guest Artist Gallery (GAG). The exhibition will include new artwork by Bearnot shown alongside archival objects from the LA&M collection, including important artifacts from Chuck Renslow and Sam Steward, as well as the personal erotic correspondence collection of Robert Gaylor (recently acquired by the LA&M).

Andrew Bearnot (MFA, University of Chicago) is a self-described “materialist”: he thinks with and through the substance of things. Informed by a background in material science (ScB, Brown University) and glass (BFA, Rhode Island School of Design), Bearnot explores moments of transcendence in the everyday. He was awarded fellowships from Fulbright and the American-Scandinavian Foundation for research on glass-making traditions in Sweden and Denmark and has been an artist-in-residence at the Hyde Park Arts Center (Chicago, IL), Museum of Arts and Design (New York, NY), Marble House Project (Dorset, VT), and Creative Glass Center of America (Millville, NJ). Recent solo exhibitions include LONG DIVISION at Wedge Projects and SCREEN TEST in the Drawing Room at the Arts Club of Chicago.

The Leather Archives & Museum is dedicated to the compilation, preservation, and maintenance of leather, kink, and fetish lifestyles. The museum’s galleries serve to present educational and historical material to an adult audience. The museum’s reading library and archives serve to support researchers and community members in accessing materials and documentation relevant to the history and culture of leather. The museum is open to the public Wednesdays through Sundays; every Thursday is a free admission day. Entrance is for those adults 18+ only. For more information on the museum, please visit www.leatherarchives.org.

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