Expand Your Outlook: Queer Ecology Hanky Project at Quarter Gallery, Regis Center for Art thru April 22

Article by Becky Fillinger, photos provided

Queer Ecology Hanky Project (QEHP) is an ongoing traveling exhibition with over one hundred and twenty artists from across North America organized by V Adams and Mary Tremonte. The exhibit showcases a diverse array of artist responses to Queer Ecology—an emerging area of inquiry that unites the study of biology, environment, and sexuality with a framework of queer theory—and celebrates a wide spectrum of print mediums and methods.

I remember being in college at Virginia Tech in the 1970s and the original queer hanky code came into being – it was a means for gay men to subtly communicate sexual desires to include different bodies, identities, and activities.  The bandana was worn in a back pocket for the purposes of sexual signaling. The color of the bandana was associated with a specific sexual practice or fetish, and the wearer’s sexual role was indicated by which back pocket the bandana resided in (tops wore bandanas in their left pocket; bottoms wore bandanas in their right pocket). Any other people out there remember the hanky code which lasted into the 1980s?

But enough about my ancient history and back to the exhibit! It won’t be in town long – only until April 22. I spoke to Professor Corinne Teed of the U’s College of Liberal Arts, one of the artists whose work is displayed in the exhibition.

Q:  What inspired you to create a submission for the exhibit? Had you studied salamanders before?

A:  The hanky that I made is about spotted salamanders and their gay night life in vernal pools. Male salamanders gather together in summer puddles and masturbate each other, filling the pools with their sperm. Wildlife biologists have historically classified this activity as a necessary labor in a heterosexual reproductive system. In 2014, I made an experimental documentary called "Mounting Evidence" about the prevalence of queer sexuality and transgender individuals within non-human animals. During a Visiting Artist talk I gave at Bowdoin College, I shared clips of the video piece and a biologist spoke in the Q&A saying she had studied this behavior for decades and it had never occurred to her that the salamanders might be experiencing homoerotic pleasure. My hankie celebrates the queer pleasure of salamander bodies during their amphibious encounters of group sex.

The majority of my work is on concepts of queer ecology. I use a queer reframing of how we understand other species and nature-cultures to contradict the hetero-patriarchal and settler colonial concepts that underpinned the development of western colonial science.

Professor Teed is just one of the 120 artists who contributed to the show. Plan your visit to this special, fun and free of charge exhibit!

Location - Quarter Gallery, Regis Center for Art, 405 21st Avenue S

Days/Times -

Tuesday and Friday, 11 am to 5 pm

Wednesday and Thursday, 11 am to 7 pm

Saturday, 11 am to 3 pm