Queer Bodies (2023)
“To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow” (Audrey Hepburn), and to care for one is to nourish hope for the future of humanity. Inspired by his time with my grandmother in their garden, Alwan use mediums from childhood as vehicles to address queerness as an adult. Using a multidisciplinary approach that includes nature, photography, and sculpture, his work engages the audience in the ecological and queer humanitarian crisis.
In Alwan’s work, the photograph becomes the home, the site, and the root of growth. His photography captures vulnerable moments in the daily life of queer identities and relationships. By incorporating these photographs with living houseplants, seeds, and soil, Alwan creates a sense of vitality and attentiveness that speaks to our innate desire for growth and renewal. Watering these plants is simultaneously an act of caring for queer people, thus amplifying the profound issues facing the queer community.
In Garden of Transformation, Alwan creates a tangible oasis that invites the viewer to tend to and water plants and the underlying queer relationships beneath them. Alwan shares his experience as a queer man highlighting the delicate side of the queer narrative and the necessity of care. With this body of work, he wants to create a space of progressive awareness and inclusivity rooted in tenderness and empathy, evoking the need for growth and action. Alwan’s photography amplifies social and political causes by establishing connections and togetherness through intimate photographs, posing questions concerning connections between ourselves and nature.
Queer Sanctuaries is a series of mixed-media sculptures built within photographs of queer people and relationships. Each photograph used in these works serves as the sculptural foundation of a pot or a planter, thus becoming a home for plants to flourish. Just as plants continue to grow amidst unusual environments, likewise, with caring relationships, queer individuals will inevitably emerge from their restraints, evolve, and even thrive in adversity. Alwan creates austere architecture with plants to discuss resilience and abundance that persists in spaces of stress. In his work, he uses photographic objects as hosts for new life, physical growth, and social development.
