QUEER ECOLOGY HANKY PROJECT
Queer Ecology Hanky Project (QEHP) is an ongoing traveling exhibition with over one hundred and twenty artists from across North America—organized by V Adams and Mary Tremonte. Through exhibitions and interdisciplinary community-centered programming, QEHP showcases a diverse array of artist responses to Queer Ecology—an emerging area of inquiry which unites the study of biology, environment, and sexuality with a framework of queer theory—and celebrates a wide spectrum of print mediums and methods.
QEHP was exhibited most recently in March 2023 at the Queer and Trans Ecologies Symposium at the University of Minneapolis, MN. Previously, the project was on display at Zygote Press in Cleveland, Ohio (2022), Women's Studio Workshop in Rosendale, NY (2021), Maine College of Art in Portland, Maine (2021), the Irma Freeman Center for Imagination in Pittsburgh, PA (2020), and the White Page Gallery in Minneapolis, MN (2019). The project is heading next to the Plains Art Museum in Fargo, ND (2024).
QEHP has given us windows into divergent possibilities for gender and sexuality, and 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.
QEHP 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. In that spirit, our past exhibitions have been accompanied by accessible programming to dive deep into the project’s themes, including: hanky code dance parties, queer ecologies woods walks, fungi fermentation workshops, panel discussions, and a series of workshops exploring printmaking and hanky adornment techniques utilized by artists in the project.
Current artist participants include: V Adams, Eana Agoplan, Dana Aleshire, Fiona Avocado, Finley Baker, Luca Bartlow, Douglas Baulos, Jacques Beas, Karen D. Beckwith, Chris Bernstein, Andrea Pérez Bessin, Boyce Bivens, Amanda Blix, Milica Bogetić, Aja Bond, Natasha Brennan, Ginger Brooks Takahashi, Jim Bullard, Eli Campanaro, MC Carey, Ruben Castillo, Devon Cohen, Jen Cooney, Molly Costello, Amy Cousins, Lorraine Cruz, J. Avery Theodore Daisey, TK Dinh, Alek de Dóchas, Heather Douglas, Jessika Fancy, Avram Finkelstein, Zeph Fishlyn, Kerri Flannigan, Pidge Fletching, Keith Foster, Carlee Freeman, Lindsey French, Matta Ghaly, Clement Hil Goldberg, Stephen Grebinski, Mia Greenwald, Jacq Groves, L Hammel, Ian Hanesworth, Mel Hardy, Luce Hartsock, Eriko Hattori, E Henderson, Juana Estrada Hernandez, Tristan Higginbotham, Eli Howey, Meg Houston, Eileen Jimenez, Hana Jimenez, atiya jones, Katie Kaplan, Devon Kelley-Yurdin, Karey Kenst, Caroline Kern, Joy Tabernacle KMT, Yang Zhen Lee, Rowan Leek, Levi LaBruzzy / 2headedcoralsnake, Malachi Lily, Sam Loewen, Selena Loomis, Ayden Love, Alyx Rene Lunada, Soren Lundi, Drea Marcos, Georgia McCandlish, Sarah McDermott, Kate McNeely, Bekezela Mguni, A-B Moore, Kate Morales, Émilie Mulcahey, Steven Muñoz, Mary Murph, Pilar Nadal, Andrea Narno, Celeste Neuhaus, Lex Non Scripta, Jayla Patton, Jason Patten, Zackary Petot, Chris Pilewski, Em Pike, Nevena Pilipovic-Wengler, Cee Please, Kelly Pontoni, Breydon Prioleau, Feliks Pyron, Claire Ragland, Saiyare Refaei, A. Reid, Jenna Reid, Syr Reifsteck, Heidi Andrea Restrepo Rhodes, Almah LaVon Rice, Rigel Richardson, Nora Rickey, Quinn Rivenburgh, Grae Rosa, Avery Rose, Erin Roussel, E.T. Russian, Lucy Satzewich, August Schultz, Nick Shick, H Simon, Willa Smart, Marta Syrup, Lou Tandon, Corinne Teed, Trash Tmblweed, Frankie Toan, Amalia Kalisz Tonsor, Mary Tremonte, Monica Trinidad, Meg Turner, Anna Wagner, Blue Wallick, Gina Washington, Vivien Wise, Summer Wood, Natalie Woodlock, Jon Woolley and Erin Zona.