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Seth Ter Haar

Seth Ter Haar is an artist,

curator, and FisherOfMen,

based in Milwaukee, WI.

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Missionary Screen

32"x24"x.75"; CNC cut plywood, paint, plywood; 2022

Missionary Screen is a material and conceptual study in concealment, power, and devotion. Using CNC cutting, flocking, and controlled lighting, the work forms a Gothic-arched screen that casts the silhouetted imprint of two figures engaged in sex. The imagery is legible yet withheld and activated only through shadow, echoing the ways queer intimacy has historically existed within systems of moral surveillance. Small cross-shaped perforations puncture the surface, functioning as both ornament and wound, allowing light to pass through acts of looking. The screen mediates between visibility and erasure and implicates the viewer in a quiet exchange of voyeurism and reverence. Drawing on the silhouetted figuration and devotional eroticism of Dutes Miller and Stan Shellabarger, alongside the confrontational use of shadow and power in Kara Walker’s work, Missionary Screen frames sex as ritual, shadow as testimony, and the body as a contested sacred site where belief, desire, and control collide.

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