actif/passif
digital collage on linen
2021–24
close-up photographs of leather fetishwear taken while worn by the pieces’ owners,
digitally collaged and printed on linen.
in december 2021, dozens of these leather-linen pieces were installed across several
walls in nscad’s photography department, acting as a series of invitations through which
one might reflect on the relative “activeness” and “passiveness” ascribed to the roles of
top/dominant and bottom/submissive, respectively. while these terms are not synonymous
(i.e. doms can bottom, bottoms are not inherently submissive, etc, etc.), they are often
used interchangeably, reinforcing a particular set of binaries where top = dom = active
= strong = masculine and bottom = sub = passive = weak = feminine.
actif/passif posits that all parties in this brief encounter occupy relative, fluctuating positions
of power, unfixed from yet inextricably tied to broader categories of identity, through material
histories and social semiotics.
the work stayed up in the photo department until may 2024, when the few remaining prints
were taken down and installed a final time at the anna leonowens gallery as part of the solo
exhibition catacombs for the living.