Triggered: Michael McFadden
© Michael McFadden. Soaked, 2019. Pigment Print on Urine Stained Watercolor Paper 2 ½ x 3 inches.
Soaked, 2019 depicts a wet body, thigh deep in a tub surrounded by subway tiles, a quiet moment of respite far away from the circling world. The image, printed on urine stained watercolor paper, provides an olfactory experience. Relatively small in scale, it requires you to get up close, to explore, examine, as the odor becomes more pronounced. In turn, our perception shifts, challenging our understanding of what fluids the subject may be soaking.
This image is a part of a larger series delving into the overlapping spaces of gay sex and intimacy. There is sex without intimacy, intimacy without sex, and the area where the two meet. For queer folx, these empowering moments of sexual connection and sexual freedom can occur in often unconventional places.
My artwork explores and celebrates sexual freedom as a form of resistance to multilayered stigma and trauma, both historical and ongoing. I explore the relationship between death and photography accentuating a longing for what is no longer present. Focusing on the overlap between internalized shame and identity affirmation, I investigate how the world around us impacts how we connect, relate, get turned on, get off.
You can see more of Michaels work here.
