Julia Barker, Special to The Denisonian
Brett Taylor (They/Them), is a 26-year-old artist and professor, who challenges normative constructs associated with the human body and human experiences by using Queer and Disability aesthetics and thinking within their work.
Taylor is a Visiting Professor of Studio Art and Queer Studies this year at Denison and is currently teaching courses such as Design Activism and Queer Graphix at the Bryant Arts Center. Taylor received their BFA in drawing from the University of Florida and their MFA in printmaking from The Ohio State University. Taylor reflects on always being a creative person who started taking their creative practice seriously at the age of eleven, when they lost the ability to walk, due to a rare form of bone cancer located in their right leg. “I could no longer take part in my traditional routine… so I turned to art as a creative outlet,” they said.
During their treatment, Taylor realized there was a language barrier present between medical professionals and their patients. Because of this, they used art as a way to, “try and picture what the procedure was going to be.” Through this process, Taylor learned “how an image could transcend the language barrier.” Taylor’s most recent art show, “Sit | Seat”, which opened to the public on Jan. 26, in the Bryant art gallery all began with the question of “what does it mean to have a seat?” Taylor said that, “the work has always… explored the intersections between ability, gender, and sexuality, looking at Queer and Crip theory, while engaging a liberal arts mindset, combining embodied knowledge with other forms of inquiry.”
Through this show, Taylor is bringing others into that space, allowing them to sit while viewing the art in order to change their perspective. Taylor said, “Above the line, the compositions are figural, having to sit as being of the body. And below the abstraction, consider what it means to have a seat, considering the social-political context … this idea that if you have a seat then you have a voice, who has a voice, and who has the ability to speak on an issue, and how this relates to access and accessibility beyond just a physical context.”
Taylor looks at their work as auto-theoretical stating that their work combines, “…biographies of personal narrative, such as navigating space in a wheelchair, or assuming the position of a queer, non-binary, differently abled individual is in conversation with and abstracted through other disciplines of research …” Within their work, Taylor hopes to connect the personal narrative with other thought processes to “make artwork accessible to the audience,” connecting this understanding to how the viewer “sees themselves in your own story…” Taylor uses their creative process as a “reintroduction of oneself to the self… Keeping personal autonomy, while also speaking to a group…” Within their work, Taylor plays upon the ideas of “spectrums” within society, stating that “The work shifts and moves within and outside of binaries that don’t really exist.” In the future, Taylor plans to continue teaching and engaging with students through art and education. “I cannot separate the making and the teaching… I think that being an educator goes along with being a lifelong learner… my hope is to continue with both academic and studio work as I move forward.”
Students can see Brett Taylor’s show “Sit | Seat” at the Bryant art gallery, and see their artist talk Feb. 16 in Bryant 415.