Sky Maggiore

Bio

Sky Maggiore is an artist and educator from rural New York. His practice utilizes photography as an experimental point of inquiry to contemplate legibility, sense of self and safety. Maggiore received an MFA from the University of Arkansas where he completed a graduate fellowship. Maggiore instructed at AGBU Camp Nubar in Delancey, NY and actively facilitates creative opportunities for young people, specifically queer youth. He currently lives in Lawrence KS working as a Photography lecturer and lab technician.

Artist Statement

Using 3D print positives and a plaster mold burn out process to create a negative, I cast glass fresnel lenses to fix infront of intimate portraits made between myself and close friends. Fresnel Stand (S., sense of self portrait No. 1) is a piece that is part of a larger project titled Ways to Endure, a multi-dimensional photo-based installation which contemplates legibility, survival, transformation, and grief through photographic inquiry and material exploration. Growing up in a rural valley in Northeast Appalachia bound me to a conservative education and a catholic upbringing. As a queer transmasculine artist my work is driven by systems of oppression that exist in places like my hometown, specifically dangerous conservatism and rampant anti-trans legislation. The design of the fresnel was created in 1870 to concentrate light into a narrow beam for safety mechanisms such as lighthouses, airplane runway lights, and as a fire starter in survival kits. The optical qualities of the lens magnifies the figure, which is printed on steel mesh using light sensitive emulsion. Combining these physical and conceptual properties of the fresnel abstracts and withholds details of the portraits and offers safety to myself and those who are dear to me. This installation of lens and image works to subvert the function and gaze of a traditional photographic lens and presentation of a photograph. The small space in between the image and lens, the reflective back of the steel mesh, the height of each fresnel stand and the placement of loose power cords ask the viewer to consider boundaries and to move with intention. Plaster molds crumble under the heat of the kiln, making each lens unique.