Chewed Encounters

Chewed bubble gum hung in tiled boxes.

Vary in sizes

Winner of NZYAA (New Zealand Youth Art Awards 2021)

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Situated within queer art this work strikes an excellent balance between seriousness and levity, centring on gay sexual encounters in bathrooms, and touching on questions of community and gender. The Daliesque nature of the melty, chewing-gum forms, observed leans the work into the bodily, in contrast to the cold glossy tiles, which is more clinical and sterile. The work brims with associations. Nipples are things some people enjoy chewing on or having chewed. Gum is something you might chew if you’re about to kiss a stranger in bar or nightclub, to make sure your breath smells okay or to lube up a drug-parched throat. The nipple-forms are reminiscent of condoms, with their teat-ish reservoirs. Referring to strings of anonymous sexual encounters: ‘experiences hung out to dry’. The phrase ‘dirty laundry’ might also come to mind. While the placement of the nipples on their lines appears fairly casual, their crafting is full of care and delicacy, suggesting the intimacy that can attend even more fleeting sexual encounters. All the while being confined by the four walls of the frame, keeping these encounters close and almost secret. Lending the audience, a sneak peek into this ‘private’ bathroom like space. Accompanied with the sweet sickly aroma of bubble gum that catches the viewer in passing or upon closer inspection.