Growing up in the 1980s/90s as a closeted gay man, Selleck felt like an outside observer to masculinity. Using sports and masculinity as a lens to view identity, his various projects of the last few years have focused on this area of identity construction. His work explores the tension between social ideals of what is it to be a man and how he and others react to that. Christopher Selleck’s This is a Record will be the first solo exhibition at SooVAC to occupy both back gallery spaces.

In one half of the space Selleck will display large scale color photographs, examining the lack of realistic or authentic gay representation in cultural spaces, primarily in television of that era. The other side of the gallery will utilize installation, sculpture, video, polymer photogravure and photography to recreate potential for encounters that men found in men’s rooms. Cruising was a method of connecting when social acceptance of gay identity was less common place and discretion was necessary.

The adjoining back room of the installation references the back rooms of many gay bars specifically the back bar of the gay 90’s with references to Big Daddy’s and the Locker Room, both now closed bathhouses. The architecture and light of this space also alludes to photography dark rooms, much like locker rooms and back rooms, they are all transformative spaces.

The opening reception and exhibition runs concurrently with It Comes in Waves, Sophia Hill’s artists in residency at SooVAC with an ever-expanding exhibition that she will create onsite in the front gallery.

IC: This Is A Record, pigmented ink print on Canson Baryta, mounted to Dibond. 30 x 20 inches. 2018