Good Fetishism?

The initial aims of the research project focused on the possibilities of representing queer desire while eschewing the problem of objectification which is frequently at stake especially when representing women’s bodies. In my research, I was originally grounded in painting, formerly my main discipline. During the process of exploring strategies of other artists, both historical and contemporary, I started questioning the adequacy of painting for the ends I wanted to communicate. Gradually, as I was involved in other artistic projects focusing on botanical and horticultural topics, I realized that a garden could be a perfect tool of not only representing desire, but communality and shared joy – aspects that are crucial to the experience of queer lives in hostile environment. In 2020, I decided to plant The Rainbow Garden in Kameníky by Kyjov dedicated to queerness. The key to the composition of the garden is conceptual, not primarily visual. The garden is composed of iris barbata cultivars arranged into flower beds according to different topics. The names given to cultivars by breeders frequently reflect frozen tropes (Secret Weekend), cultural imagery (Cher and Cher Alike), and even stereotypes (Perfect Wife, Wild Petticoat).The names function as ready-mades from which a cluster of associations or even narratives or poems can be made. Thus the rainbow garden consists of iris beds dedicated to different topics: there are several Gender stereotypes beds, a Queer bed, and several love poems. Situated among vineyards, orchards, and fields, the garden without fences is accessible to passers-by and is the location of annual queer picnics and annual short-term artistic residencies. In the course of seven years, I have found (but not perfected!) a form of representing and enacting queer desire trough indirect metaphors reflected in names given to irises by others, but also through direct orchestration of events and meetings of both queer and straight people.