Queer Ecology Hanky Project (QEHP) is an ongoing traveling exhibition with over one hundred and twenty artists from across North America—organized by Vee Adams and Mary Tremonte. Through exhibitions and interdisciplinary community-centered programming, QEHP showcases a diverse array of artist responses to Queer Ecology—an emerging area of inquiry which unites the study of biology, environment, and sexuality with a framework of queer theory—and celebrates a wide spectrum of print mediums and methods.
QEHP is currently on display at the Plains Art Museum in Fargo, ND through December 2024. Previously, the project was on display at the Queer and Trans Ecologies Symposium the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, MN (2023), Zygote Press in Cleveland, Ohio (2022), Women's Studio Workshop in Rosendale, NY (2021), Maine College of Art in Portland, Maine (2021), the Irma Freeman Center for Imagination in Pittsburgh, PA (2020), and the White Page Gallery in Minneapolis, MN (2019). The project is heading next to the SNAP- the Society of Northern Alberta Print-Artists- gallery in Edmonton, Canada.
QEHP has given us windows into divergent possibilities for gender and sexuality, and models of resilience and resistance in a world that feels increasingly bleak. In recent years, queers of all genders and proclivities have expanded the definitions of the original gay hanky code—which emerged in the United States in the early 1970s, as a means for gay men to subtly communicate sexual desires—to include different bodies, identities, and activities. This show originates from a love of designing, printing, and distributing bandanas as wearable artwork, and a means to continue a queer communication of flagging, of finding affinity with plants, animals, mycelia, and each other.
QEHP is full of artwork intended for activation—artist bandanas that will hopefully accompany walks in the woods, accessorize outfits at queer dance parties, bundle up foraged mushrooms, and start conversations. In that spirit, our past exhibitions have been accompanied by accessible programming to dive deep into the project’s themes, including: hanky code dance parties, queer ecologies woods walks, fungi fermentation workshops, panel discussions, and a series of workshops exploring printmaking and hanky adornment techniques utilized by artists in the project.
To further investigate the ideas and images of the QEHP, Vee Adams and Mary Tremonte created the artist book Exuberant Possibilities during an artist residency at Eureka! House. QEHP has been featured in publications Ecotone Magazine and Ladyscience and has been interviewed for WESA News Pittsburgh and Booklyn Calling Podcast.
QUEER ECOLOGY HANKY PROJECT is: Vee Adams, Eana Agoplan, Dana Aleshire, Vesper Amanita, Fio Avocado, Finley Baker, Luca Bartlow, Douglas Baulos, Jacques Beas, Karen D. Beckwith, Chris Bernstein, Andrea Perez Bessin, Boyce Bivens, Amanda Blix, Milica Bogetic, Bohemian Press, Aja Bond, Natasha Brennan, Ginger Brooks Takahashi, Jim Bullard, Eli Campanaro, MC Carey, Ruben Castillo, Devon Cohen, Jen Cooney, Olly Costello, Amy Cousins, Lorraine Cruz, J. Avery Theodore Daisey, TK Dinh, Alek de Dochas, Heather Douglas, Jessika Fancy, Avram Finkelstein, Zeph Fishlyn, Kerri Flannigan, Keith Foster, Carlee Freeman, Lindsey French, Matta Ghaly, Clement Hil Goldberg, Stephen Grebinski, Mia Greenwald, Jacq Groves, L Hammel, Ian Hanesworth, Mel Hardy, Luce Hartsock, Erika Hattori, E Henderson, Juana Estrada Hernandez, Tristan Higginbotham, Eli Howey, Meg Houston, Eileen Jimenez, Hana Jimenez, atiya jones, Katie Kaplan, Devon Kelley-Yurdin, Karey Kenst, Caroline Kern, Joy Tabernacle KMT, Yang Zhen Lee, Rowan Leek, Levi LaBruzzy / 2headedcoralsnake, Malachi Lily, Sam Loewen, Selena Loomis, Ayden Love, Alyx Rene Lunada, Soren Lundi, Drea Marcos, Andy Mauleon, Georgia McCandlish, Sarah McDermott, Kate McNeely, Bekezela Mguni, A-B Moore, Kate Morales, Emilie Mulcahey, Steven Munoz, Mary Murph, Pilar Nadal, Andrea Narno, Celeste Neuhaus, Lex Non Scripta, Jayla Patton, Jason Patten, Zackary Petot, Chris Pilewski, Em Pike, Nevena Pilipovic-Wengler, Cee Please, Kelly Pantoni, Breydon Prioleau, Feliks Pyron, Claire Ragland, Saiyare Refaei, A. Reid, Jenna Reid, Syr Reifsteck, Heidi Andrea Restrepo Rhodes, Almah LaVon Rice, Rigel Richardson, Noa Rickey, Quinn Rivenburgh, Grae Rosa, Avery Rose, Erin Roussel, E.T. Russian, Lucy Satzewich, August Schultz, Nick Shick, H Simon, Willa Smart, Marta Syrup, Lou Tandon,Corinne Teed, Trash Tmblweed, Frankie Toan, Amalia Kalisz Tonsor, Mary Tremonte, Monica Trinidad, Meg Turner, Anna Wagner, Blue Wallick, Gina Washington, Vivien Wise, Summer Wood, Natalie Woodlock, Jon Woolley and Erin Zona
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