TEA DANCE 1980
I designed and built ceramic, wood and leather tea sets, helmets, and codpieces for Clay 1980 at Tyler School of Art – one of several prestigious exhibitions I was invited into as a young clay artist.
Before I delivered the work, Thomas Moore photographed me and a few friends with the tea sets in a series of sculptural tableaux.
In an act of creative expression and gay liberation, my life-partner Dan Martin and I attended the opening wearing the codpieces.
I was never again invited into other shows or publications by Philadelphia’s conservative curators of contemporary crafts.
Thomas, Dan and I are presenting this show to celebrate our history as cultural activists, at a time when our rights as a queer community are being challenged – again – through prejudice, censorship, and injustice.