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the Garden of Hedon

Produced with the support of the Ontario Arts Council, and Koyama Provides, “The Garden of Hedon” explores the site of Canada’s first Pride celebration and oldest surviving queer space, Hanlan’s Point Clothing-Optional Beach. Perhaps it is this legacy that elevates the space from safe to sacred. A veritable queer utopia where the laws of our unnatural world are rewritten by queer fantasy. Works like Merthey and Fluidly also explore ideas around what a queer beach can mean for gender and expression, and how queers can test variations on their presentation in this sacred setting. Works like Piercing, A Spark, and Horse Play depict gay men stripping the context and costume of urban living, instinctively returning to the primordial Hunter and Hunted. This ancestral chase and embrace across generations spanning more than a century constitutes its own modern mythos, reflected in the mythological imagery used in the series.

The Garden of Hedon was included in Peter Knegt’s weekly column Queeries for CBC – A safe haven for queers, an inspiration for artists: Why we must fight for Hanlan’s Point Beach

All works are 8×10 oil on canvas with the exception of “Merthey” which is 8×11 watercolour on paper.