MAY 2023
NORTH GALLERY
For Your Comfort | Ethan/Kayaaní J Lauesen
Ethan/Kayaaní J Lauesen is a visual artist based in Fairbanks, Alaska. They earned their Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2019. Their body of work focuses on their Denaakk’e Koyukon Athabaskan and Lingit cultural backgrounds, their queer identity, and how they are perceived in Alaskan communities. The prints, paintings, and drawings they produce are an intimate response to public perceptions of themselves due to inter-sectional issues of race, gender, and sexuality; encapsulating their personal narrative and experiences documenting cultural change.
Artist Statement
For Your Comfort is a collection of prints archiving my experiences as a visibly Queer, Alaskan Native and how I am perceived in Alaskan public spaces. The topics of intersectionality, community, and identity acceptance are core themes that I explore. The work I create directly references the emotions associated with the tension surrounding doubt and lack of acceptance. To achieve this effect I often incorporate figurative distortions, adding disconcerting elements into the figures, obscuring facial features, creating repetition of specific anatomical features as well as the entire figure itself. The premise behind the figurative distortions is to create an effect of emotional transference that alludes to the experience of identity rejection. There is emphasis on a strong sense of place and the activities, routines, and cultural associations with the city and rural scapes that I reference; places that tend to resonate with my own conscience and memory. A significant portion of the imagery I create incorporates visual cues from my cultural background, collaging formline imagery into my prints. The collaged formline elements are ghostly in nature, capturing the spiritual importance of my cultural heritage; no matter where I go in the world it will always be a core part of my identity.
The work I create is an autobiographical, visual narrative compiling my day to day experiences through intersectional context from relationships, community interaction, to identity acceptance and development. To emphasize the intimacy of my prints I work on a relatively small scale utilizing intaglio techniques that require more attention to detail. As a result my body of work is also a coming out story for my own Queer identity and the gradual process of becoming more comfortable with that identity. The intent of For My Comfort is to highlight the complexity of Alaska’s cultural dialogue, especially in regards to Alaska Native and LGBTQIA+ experience. For My Comfort strives to challenge the notion that one must present themselves for the comfort of others and to foster an appreciation for community and diversity.
