“They were still in the same position, Brad’s arm pulled over

Phillip’s chest, holding hands. Then, with his toe, Brad switched

off the television set, and the room was dark. They lay silent for a

while, matching their breathing to each other.”

As Phillip, the protagonist of the novel attempts to gather his thoughts together in this poignant scene, he finds himself unable to articulate them to his newfound lover, Brad. Unsure as to whether the latter will reject his sentimental overtures, Phillip prefers instead to leave the words unsaid and unspoken.

Likewise, in the personal memoir The Farewell Symphony, Edmund White endeavors to discover his voice again after the death of his lover, Brice. Writing, discourse and language, as tools for healing, serve to recount the trials of recovering from loosing White’s partner to AIDS, and are commemorative of memory, desire, sensuality and sorrow.

A third hero, Malone, from Andrew Holleran’s Dancer from the Dance, can neither find true love throughout all his obsessive searching, nor verbally express his need for that love. He is immobilized by gossip and judgment from his peers as well as the trepidation that his family will eventually discover the real and unacceptable nature of his affections and sexuality.

I begin with three examples of the contemporary figure in gay literature because the failure to find the capacity to speak still remains as one of the singular, most encapsulating experiences of being gay today. From the earliest propaganda slogans in queer history – “Silence Equals Death” / “We’re Here We’re Queer” – to the recent debates on gay marriage and domestic rights, the need to be heard, accepted and seen has inspired Love Stories, Joel Seah’s exhibition of a series of surface patterns samples that is entirely composed of text.

Drawing from a collection of intimate phrases, these are words that Seah has spoken to boyfriends, lover and partners, in the solitude of his thoughts, or out loud in private space and exchange, but never in front of others in any social setting. The completion of the thirty patterns in the series was a journalistic exercise in documenting his relationships with significant others, the interactions with frivolous encounters and the imagined endings of infatuations that were obviously never meant to be. In all cases, similar scenarios in which the above-mentioned characters Philip, Edmund and Malone find themselves, have also prevented Seah’s utterances from completely emerging.

At first glance and from a distance, vivid colors and vibrant designs catch the eye, engaging the viewer to approach the work. However, upon closer investigation and inspection, it is revealed that the patterns are constructed from reconfigurations of text and font, transformed to delineate form and space. The text is hidden or revealed, to varying degrees, in order to encourage the viewer to navigate the pieces and perhaps consider why words and cognitive meaning need to be so discreetly disguised.

This strategy of mimicry and simulation is best described by Craig Owens in his seminal essay Posing in which he states calculated duplicity is an indispensable deconstructive tool. Owens continues to elaborate that the mimic appropriates official discourse, and introduced the discourse of the Other, but in such a way that the hegemonic model’s authority and power to function are cast into doubt. This is an attitude to the act of posturing as a response to the agency of social surveillance. Owens also relies on Jacques Lacan’s essay The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, in order to make the distinction that to imitate is not only to reproduce an image, but additionally for the subject to be inserted in a function whose exercise grasps it.

While these ideas refer specifically to the concrete visual representations in photography and painting, Seah has structured the framework surrounding Love Stories along the same tactics. The surface patterns reference domesticity and its inherent artifacts while conceding that this initial appearance may be fabricated from a sub-textual component that has the potential to re-evaluate and re-interpret the reading of social values. There exists a conflict surrounding the understanding of Self, in how being gay is not free from its cultural discriminative activities of wanting to simply lead a normal life. As a process of recognition for the viewer, Love Stories opens the possibilities for exploring language and consequently identity, as a constantly shifting understanding.

At this point, I would like to note that the specificities of having to closet one’s speech and action have the potential to be related to many relationships. As such, the phrases are deliberately truncated to suggest this ambiguousness. For example, “you’ll always be,” “if I loved you” and “nothing like this before” could be fluidly uttered in any number of partnership situations. While drawing from observations and experiences with other gay men, Love Stories also remains open to interpretation. These sweet nothings are undefined in terms of gender and sexuality in order to relate to a broader range of human experiences.

The decision to physically produce wallpaper pattern samples was mitigated by Seah’s research into the history of this decorative craft and its affinity to the concepts of mimicry and disguise. In 16th century Europe, wallpaper was originally conceived to cover the flaws and imperfections in interiors, and was a device for the middle class to approximate the painted murals, expensive tapestries and lush fabrics that decorated the walls of the wealthier homestead.

In Love Stories, the idea of embedding and housing forbidden emotional and psychological conditions in design parodies the action of closeting, homosexual or otherwise. The wallpaper samples for the exhibition hide the imperfection of walls in the gallery space as a metaphor for concealing social imperfection. Despite this, the wallpaper is in and of itself ‘flawed’ by the enduring prevalence of the activity it originally seeks to metaphorically cover. Having the presence of the social stain resurface in the actual paper affirms the conviction that regardless of environmental conditions, love in adversarial circumstances will continue to persist and thrive quietly. The repetitiousness of the wallpaper pattern can be seen to either neutralize the uncertain difficult and disagreeable content, or situate and imply the frequency and incidence of its occurrence.

The secondary function of wallpaper - to imitate and copy specific social aesthetics - further supports the idea that in order to survive socially, the identities and situations from which the phrases arise must be assimilated into a believable and convincing context, or else remain hidden. The viewer has the task of seeking out and finding the anomalies beneath the surface of a perceived social normalcy. The arguments that homosexual union mocks the privileges of heterosexual marriages can also be suggested and implied in the gesture of counterfeiting a domestic beauty and idyllity, with the homosexual longings that seek the same conditions. Dwelling and shelter, as basic human needs, are the entry points into conveying the commonalities and differences between modes of union and nesting, relative to the viewer’s own personal history.

In creating work from his own understanding of coming out, assessments on personal relationships and encounters with other gay men, Seah encourages renewed discussions about the problematic location of growing discourses within a predominantly straight society. Through the veiling of the private self, in public and social spaces, Love Stories seeks narratives that intersect with historically shared pasts and contemporary intervals, and connect with proposed futures.

Stephen Danzig
Exhibitions Director
Jan Manton Art, Brisbane Australia