36"x20"x1.5"; laser cut and engraved plywood and white oak veneer with paint; 2025

Pool House Pre Horse Meat Disco documents an intimate interval during an artist residency in New Orleans, situating queer encounter within the broader rituals of gay travel and vacation culture. Laser-cut from plywood and mounted within a frame lined in black flocking, the work experiments with varied burn settings to loosen the artist’s previously precise, controlled aesthetic. Abstracted imagery drawn from illicit self-documentation depicts a hooded, handcuffed cruiser, rendered indistinct through ornament and shadow, transforming sexual experience into a form of holy rite or spiritual awakening.

The flocked backing absorbs light almost completely, creating a depth akin to Vantablack and causing the panel to appear suspended, untethered from the frame. This darkness contrasts with the warm grain of the wood, heightening the sense of surveillance, power, and temporality. Positioned between anthropology and devotion, the work reflects on the artist’s ability to witness, record, and sanctify fleeting moments of queer communion rather than escape them through conventional labor or leisure.