Hunger
Do I want to be you, date you, or fuck you? This trifecta is synonymous with my experience of lesbian desire. Most representations of lesbianism are isolated from complicated reality – they’re rooted in innocent romance, pander to a pornographic male gaze, or show characters gripped by fear of deviancy. There’s boundless affection lost in these rigid portrayals and a liberation in letting go of selfhood: to consume and to be consumed by love. There has been and will always be lesbian history and art, even if it isn’t often publicized. Hunger rectifies this by promulgating a more authentic (though not all-encompassing) slice of lesbian desire. Showcased are a series of self-portraits where I serve as both photographer and model, directly taking agency over my identity.
Hunger also is in direct dialogue with lesbianism of the past, present, and future by highlighting thousands of years of poetry from Sappho, Emily Dickinson, Audre Lorde, Eileen Myles, Marilyn Hacker, Adrienne Rich, Willyce Kim, Monique Whittig, and Kimberly Alidio. The poems are interspersed between the loose photographic narrative of desire. Despite living in different times, we are connected by our deep capacity to love and to live in truth, even when it isn’t necessarily beautiful or comforting. What do you Hunger for? What will you do – or become – to satiate it?
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Senior Thesis, Honors Project.
"Didn't Sappho say her guts clutched up like this?" by Marilyn Hacker
Excerpt From “Eating Artichokes” By Willyce Kim
Excerpt From “: okra oat egg :” By Kimberly Alidio
Excerpt From “The Lesbian Body” By Monique Whittig
Movie By Eileen Myles
Letter from Emily Dickinson to Susan Gilbert (Summer 1852) By Emily Dickinson
Recreation By Audre Lorde
VI (From 21 Love Poems) By Adrienne Rich
Six Fragments for Atthis By Sappho, Translated by Sherod Santos
Someone, I tell you, will remember us,
even in another time.
I do.