FIRST I LAY WITH ADAM by Sam Duckor-Jones is a personal response to Pride and queerness.  His installation features large ceramic vases in neon pink, alongside tiny close-up drawings of hair and skin, crammed into former domestic spaces of the historic Pah Homestead.

“My queerness bewilders me. Plus, I’m an occasional recluse. This isn’t conducive to reciprocal love or even satisfactory levels of handholding. I make art about it to try and obtain a little objectivity. I worry that if I stop it might become overwhelming. I made a lot of nude sculptures, for example, hoping for a miracle. But there’s been no miracle.  Like, if you don’t love yourself, how in the hell you gonna love somebody else, ay RuPaul. So here is a closer exam slash personal reality check. Like, if you love clay so much, Sam, make a pot, son, & don’t expect it to love you back. A helpful meditation. Deep breaths round a fundamental form, sticky beginning, gestural yawn.

Here is form so dewy it doesn’t yet have the word
Here is in the beginning

Here is the soft wet opening that comes before a breath
Here is there was darkness

Here is the phantom shimmer of pore & vessel & follicle
Here is good, good

Here is the coordinated cocking of a universal hip

Here is Adam
Here is I ”

– Sam Duckor-Jones, 2018

Sam Duckor-Jones makes ceramics and writes from his home in Featherston, Wairarapa. He examines queerness, intimacy and voice in his work. He has exhibited extensively across New Zealand and a new major public work – eight large ceramic figures – was installed at Wellington Airport in January 2019. Sam is represented by Bowen Galleries.

Presented by TSB Wallace Arts Trust