Making masks led me into other “trophy objects” to suggest certain experiences. The “Emotional Baggage” series was also around this time (although I was far from finished with masks). The bag, case or backpack is worn close to the body and can contain secrets. It said something to me about privacy and even shame and identity. Bags became symbols like portable closets. The three shown here suggested first a boy in his early teens struggling with understanding his sexuality without role models. This was the situation I had been in so, of course, this one is more autobiographical. The bag is pinned to the wall like a crucified body and the zip is pulled open at the bottom revealing darkness and emptiness inside. The opening suggests an ambiguous bodily opening. The style of bag deliberately referenced the period of time when I grew up and the world was almost devoid of gay images that a child might understand as positive, hopeful or even recognisable. The second was called “Smile Smile Smile”, (from the First World War song Pack up Your Troubles in your Old Kit Bag). This was old military baggage splayed open like a tanned hide. Again the shape was vaguely bodily and reminded me of the song Tender Comrade by Bragg. I had read about a very early gay poetry group called The Uranians and these ideas were starting to overlap for me. Finally was the finished outcome for the briefcase object, again splayed open and the traditionally respectable black leather had become somehow fetishised by the addition of a pierced nipple. The failed and rusted lock became a navel and the handle became a small male genital on display. This was from the story of the businessman commuter who’s bag had fallen open on a crowded train revealing his paperwork and various erotic magazines. Although by the content he was apparently straight the compartment burst into laughter and he, mortified got off at the next stop. I wasn’t there to witness it but thought at the time how small, ashamed and devastated he must have felt to suddenly be revealed in front of strangers. #degreework #wallbased #assemblage #sculpture #queerart #queerartist #shame #privacy #closet #emotionalbaggage #bags (at Stoke-on-Trent) https://www.instagram.com/p/CUIKdxZM7rl/?utm_medium=tumblr