YOUNG SUN HAN . Every Queer

Why are we so damn beautiful? 

During the past two years grad school, a film project, and a residency provided incredible opportunities to travel and connect with diverse queer communities across the globe. Despite differences in culture and language, resilient and irreverent qualities abound in queer spaces – communities that form them have had to fight for their existence. In my quarantine year, I revisited recent photographs – a mixture of documentation, portraiture, and personal snapshots. Working with a portable printer, I made hundreds of small prints, arranging these on my studio wall as a ubiquitous reminder of the community I physically miss so much. It functions as vision board, yearbook, and Zoom backdrop for so many virtual engagements. People and places from Tokyo, Seoul, Mexico City, Berlin, New York all kiki together, unmindful of distance or borders. The wall remains flexible, a source of hope. Many of the images from 2020 represent public actions when queer activists took to the streets to fight for Black Lives, including successful repeal of the "walking while trans" law. The Stonewall Protests – abolition as liberation – have been ongoing weekly, led by Qween Jean and Joel Rivera and documented more thoroughly by others. The people portrayed in my photographs provide consent whenever possible and are activists, defenders, artists, performers, friends, lovers, and strangers.

List of events:

Amaranth Lounge, 15-Year Anniversary, Tokyo, Japan, 2018

Pervert Party, CDMX, Mexico, 2018

Radical Faeries, Upstate New York, 2018-19

1st Reclaim Pride Festival, NYC, 2019

Reclaim Pride March, NYC, 2020

Bushwig, Maria Hernandez Park, Brooklyn, 2020

City Hall Autonomous Zone, Defund the Police Occupation, 2020

March for Trans Lives, Brooklyn, 2020

The Stonewall Protests (weekly Thursdays, Manhattan), 2020

Berlinale Queer Talents Party, 2020

Young Sun Han

February 2021