Brian Paul Clamp and Michael Young were interviewed by Dana Stirling for Float Magazine.
How did the concept for “Sharp Cuts: Queer Collage” come about, and what drew you to collage as a medium for exploring queer expression?
The concept grew organically. After seeing many strong examples, I, Brian Paul Clamp, began considering an exhibition focusing specifically on queer collage. Upon meeting artist Michael Young and having a series of conversations, I invited him to co-curate a show for CLAMP.
Similar to the resurgence of alternative processes, such as photograms, cyanotypes, salt prints, etc., in recent years there has been a parallel focus from contemporary artists on collage, perhaps motivated by the same desire to engage with the photographic medium in tactile, analog ways, as a response to the ubiquity of digital technologies.As co-curators, we both also believe that there is a correlation between the lived queer experience and collage, in that our stories and histories are a pastiche taken from the world around us. Typically we are expected to live our lives immersed in a presumption of heteronormativity. We, as queer people, have to pick and choose the pieces we can tolerate and use, and then reconfigure them into a semblance of functionality that works for each of us individually. It is a retrofitting of sorts.