“Watt’s models and props suggest that queerness is not confined to a location. Instead, it is everywhere waiting to be discovered and activated in the places we expect it to be as much as the places we choose it to be. The pain, loss, love, and desire that flow through nightclubs and bath houses can be just as potent in a laundromat or pool.”
Douglas Watt
Douglas Watt (b. 1990, St. Catharines) is an artist living and working in Vancouver. His work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Unit 17 in Vancouver, Tara Downs in New York, and Pumice Raft in Toronto. His work has been reviewed twice in Artforum’s print edition, and was longlisted for the Sobey Art Award in 2023. He holds a BA in Art History from Carleton University in Ottawa, was a visiting student in Criticism & Curatorial Practice at OCAD University in Toronto, and recently received his MFA from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver.
Several of the works in this issue consider how the domestic is shaped not only by private life but also by global currents, family histories, and consumer goods, nudging at the conditions that shape how we live, where we live, and with whom we choose to share our lives.