Patron Gallery presents their third solo exhibition with New York-based artist Brittany Nelson (b. 1984). Nelson’s conceptual practice explores how science fiction, and the ongoing pursuit of space exploration, offer venues for the consideration of new social possibilities outside the limitations of heteronormative society. Utilizing analog chemical photographic techniques, historical science fiction and its archive, and visual culture from recent NASA missions, Nelson suggests how extraterrestrial, or non-human actors can function as proxies for queer life. I can’t make you love me pulls open the human, and often deeply romantic quests at the heart of astronomical discovery, both real and imagined.
Since 2020, Nelson has researched an extensive archive of letters between science fiction writer Alice B. Sheldon (under the male pseudonym; James Tiptree Jr.) and novelist Ursula Le Guin between 1971 and 1976. Their exchange held space for real-life para-fiction. While withholding her true gender identity, Tiptree’s flirtatious fantasies were received and reciprocated by Le Guin—Tiptree would eventually reveal her true gender identity to Le Guin in 1976, and subsequently see Le Guin as a confidant “Ursula, Ursula I am petrified. – – – will they take it as “deception”?
Brittany Nelson : I can’t make you love me
February 3 – March 30, 2024
Patron Gallery
1612 W Chicago Ave.
Chicago, IL 60622
www.patrongallery.com
