Queer Ecology Hanky Project

Organized by Vanessa Adams and Mary Tremonte Opening Reception Friday, February 7, 2020. 7 – 10 p.m. Closing Reception Friday, March 6, 2020. 7 - 10 p.m. Irma Freeman Center for Imagination 5006 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA http://www.irmafreeman.org 

Irma Freeman Center for Imagination is proud to present Queer Ecology Hanky Project, an exhibition of 90 artist bandanas from across North America, from Vancouver to Mexico City, organized by Vanessa Adams and Mary Tremonte. Seventeen of the artists are based in Pittsburgh. 

Queer Ecology Hanky Project opens on Friday, February 7th, 2020 with a reception from 7 - 10 PM. The show will be up through March 6th, 2020, with a closing reception. Gallery Hours will be on Sundays from 1-5 pm. Irma Freeman Center for Imagination is located on 5006 Penn Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15224. 

This exhibition will showcase a diverse array of artist responses to Queer Ecology—an area of inquiry which unites the study of biology, environment, and sexuality with a framework of queer theory--and a wide spectrum of print mediums and methods. This is the first complete exhibit of Queer Ecology Hanky Project, with a soft opening of most of the artists taking place in October 2019, at the White Page Gallery in Minneapolis. 

Queer Ecology Hanky Project has given us windows into divergent possibilities for gender and sexuality, models of resilience and resistance in a world that feels increasingly bleak. In recent years, queers of all genders and proclivities have expanded the definitions of the original gay hanky code—which emerged in the United States in the early 1970s, as a means for gay men to subtly communicate sexual desires—to include different bodies, identities, and activities. 

This show originates from a love of designing, printing, and distributing bandanas as wearable artwork, and a means to continue a queer communication of flagging, of finding affinity with plants, animals, mycelia, and each other. 

Queer Ecology Hanky Project is full of artwork intended for activation - artist bandanas that will hopefully accompany walks in the woods, accessorize outfits at queer dance parties, bundle up foraged mushrooms, and start conversations. All work is created in editions of 20 or more, and is available for sale at the exhibition. In that spirit, as part of the exhibition, there will be a hanky code dance party, Sappho: Hanky Situation, on Saturday February 15, from 7-11 pm and an artist market for artists involved in the Queer Ecology Hanky Project and local queer artists on Sunday, February 9, from 12-5pm. All programming takes place at the Irma Freeman Center.