A Love Letter to My Spine (in blue)

I’m thinking about the word, surreal, and what it means.

I find it interesting that we should consider some things real, and some things surreal.

As a person who lives on the margins of the hetero-normative, bigoted, patriarchy, everything for me has always been surreal and so the distinction escapes me or perhaps bores me.

But I will say that I find it surreal that I spent so much of my life hating my body and hating the beautiful, flawed dynamic that is me.

I walk around with a crooked and broken spine and I spent 80% of every day navigating how to live with that spine.

But I am here to confess that I love you, my beautiful spine.

You amazing thing, you keep me moving.

It is certainly surreal that I used to hate you, you that walks me around every day.

Thank you my beautiful, broken, crooked spine.

I made you a sculpture that is shaped like you or shaped about you.

I made other sculptures and even some photos, but they are all about you, as my friend Malia wrote:

“And your backbone holding you up in the confusion, knitting your parts together, providing ambulatory power, absorbing shock, curling in defense, straightening up in defiance, the cradle of your nerves, connecting all the pathways, cave paintings written on bone, blue blood, singing life songs inside your body. Your life. Your real, surreal, life in blue and bone.”

In love and kindness,

Christopher

Due to the unique nature of each piece of art, shipping will be calculated and billed separately at the end of the show.

As part of the Louisiana Cultural Districts Program, all original art purchases at BRG are granted a reduced sales tax rate of 4.45% (as opposed to the standard 10% sales tax). Sales tax is applied during checkout