This podcast opens with Whit’s amazing singing voice, and continues into an equally amazing interview with Marlee where they discuss making art, queerness as a restoration of life, Whit’s longstanding relationship with witch craft and the tarot, mental health practices, and even grant writing. Whit Forrester is a photographic artist who also likes to use performance, and as we discover they are also an ordained minister. Whit is a native of Louisville, Kentucky; toured with Rainbow in the Dark, a queer and trans performance project; and is now an MFA photography candidate at Columbia College in Chicago, photographically looking at nature and our relationship to it. Their current work is on view at Have Company, a series of photographs of house plants “sainted” with gold leaf halos.
Words of wisdom:
“I feel it is best for me to make decisions with my body.”
Projects at Have Company:
Whit spent time on their photographs, and invited guests to visit the space and give feedback. They gave Marlee and the other resident artist Sarah stick and poke tattoos, and offered tarot readings to friends in town. Whit ended the week with an experimental performance at Have Company, part of a series of performances about love, and they also held space for a discussion on queer art and life.
Things to be excited about:
- Gold! finding the place that gold gets it’s light.
- Books! Whit recommends Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner by Scott Cunningham and everything written by bell hooks.
- Traveling! Whit is going to Zürich, to put on an art show, writing a grant to look at how AIDS legalized weed in California, and writing another grant to visit Ireland.
- Queering our relationship to landscape, taking borders + boundaries and realizing they are fluid and flexible. Listening instead of demanding.