New Artists’ Editions by AA Bronson, co- Published by ICA and Printed Matter to accompany In Numbers: Serial Publications by Artists Since 1955.
For the ICA and Printed Matter, AA Bronson has made a pair of digital-pigment prints entitled The Call of The Wild and Self-Disclosures. The images form part of a new series of works relating to the publication Queer Spirits, a project made in collaboration with Canadian artist Peter Hobbs.
The Call of the Wild and Self Disclosures are about ideas of nature and masculinity. The wilderness, associated with masculinity since the early nineteenth century, provides a backdrop to Bronson’s cast of characters that live outside of heterosexual suburban life. The park ranger, for example is an icon of the all-male environment of loggers, trappers and the like. “This deviant character finds its mirror in the queer behaviour of wild animals: They lurk in the parklands, and their questionable presence is monitored by authorities. In circles of queer witches, we find another model: gathering naked in the moonlight in forest clearings, their secret rituals charged with sexual energies, their deviance lies in their deference to nature. Unlike the ‘masculine’ park rangers and boy scouts, they do not challenge nature, but join with it.”
