Aaron Wilder, Expletive Chapel (Phase 1), 2016, LED Light Box Triptych with Laser Cut Construction Paper and Inkjet
Prints (Simulated Stained Glass Prototypes)
Media Contact:
Aaron Wilder, Artist
aaronwilderart@gmail.com
Title: Expletive Chapel: Lavender Heights, An Installation by Aaron Wilder
Exhibition Dates: 14 September – 1 November 2019
Opening Reception: Saturday 14 September, 6-10pm
Closing Reception: Saturday 12 October, 6-10pm
Aaron Wilder, Expletive Chapel (Phase 2), 2016, LED Light Box Triptych with Laser Cut Construction Paper and Inkjet
Sacramento, California – 30 August 2019. Expletive Chapel: Lavender Heights is an art installation or artistic
architectural intervention by Aaron Wilder to create an intersection between interior and exterior worlds through
relatable, queer experiences. The InsideOut in Sacramento’s Lavender Heights neighborhood is a space that
cannot be entered, but can instead be experienced directly from the street. Wilder has transformed The
InsideOut into a sacred space for meditation out of his own as well as communal experiences with what can be
considered the most profane: derogatory slurs.
This installation is a spatial experiment extending from the artist’s ongoing project entitled Expletive, an
investigation into the possibilities of healing through the aestheticization of derogatory labels. Wilder employs
vividness, repetition, and the form of text to disempower slurs used everyday by obscuring the word through
the stacking of its letters on top of each other. What remains is an aesthetic and geometric arrangement of
shapes. Wilder is acutely aware of the impact of derogatory slurs aimed at those in the queer community
based on his own experience growing up in a conservative evangelical Christian environment. He was
surrounded by family members trying to educate him on how to avoid those who are marginalized in society.
All the while, he was secretly one of those marginalized “sinners.”
For Expletive Chapel: Lavender Heights, Wilder has transformed two of The InsideOut’s windows into reversed
stained glass beacons through the deconstruction of four of the most common slurs applied to individuals
within (or perceived to be within) the queer community. As these are reversed stained glass windows with their
light source inside as opposed to outside, their beauty is characterized by what they illuminate in the exterior
world, not the origins of the deconstructed slurs or their inherent architectural form. They emphasize the beauty
of the human rainbow that is the community of Lavender Heights. The artist has placed his lived experience in
the windows. Looking at a distance, these designs appear as abstract ornaments. Looking closer, one can see
very different motifs comprising the breadth of human experiences.
In the inner space, viewable only through the remaining, central window, Wilder has created a chapel of sorts
that will evolve over the duration of the installation. Traditionally, a chapel is a site that has been sanctified by
holy rituals, relics, and saints. Instead, Wilder is creating a chapel sanctified by the history of Lavender Heights
and the current struggles and triumphs of the Lavender saints who make it their home. Throughout the period
of the installation, Wilder will be adding relics symbolizing the lived experiences of those in the Sacramento
queer community.
Wilder seeks to transform the whole of the space into a visual reflection of local contemporary and historical
queerness with an impact greater than the power of spoken slurs. The resulting sacred space can be thought
of as a centering place where the cosmic planes of heaven, earth, and hell are all in contact. At the center of
the installation is a phantasmagorical mirror where the head of the artist and the head of the viewer are
combined through a shared experience of perseverance through suffering. Wilder’s work aspires to be a
setting embedded in the Sacramento queer community for new rituals that make us larger than our individual
selves through a shared pride of belonging.
This exhibition was curated by Mehran Mesbah.
Artist Bio
Aaron Wilder is an interdisciplinary artist who blurs boundaries between the analog and the digital, the public
and the private, and the unassuming and the instigative. He uses his own experiences and sense of identity as
a lens through which he explores the introspective and social processes of contemporary culture. Through an
analytical deconstruction of these processes, his artistic approach is akin to that of an anthropologist,
sociologist, and psychologist combined. Wilder’s concept-driven projects all incorporate his core belief that art
can and should be used as a tool for generating critical thinking, dialogue, knowledge sharing, and
understanding between individuals with divergent world perspectives.
Wilder’s work tends to be very analytical as a way to better understand social constructs impacting his sense of
identity. A social construct is a social mechanism or category developed by society that forwards perception of
an individual or group that is created culturally as opposed to biologically. Social constructs include gender,
race, religion, and many other groupings that strongly impact an individual’s sense of identity. These social
constructs are perpetuated by how a child is raised, language and other communication practices, and visible
signs including advertising, popular culture, and education. While there are some innocuous impacts of social
constructs, there are also many negative aspects, including perpetuating systemic racism, sexism,
homophobia, etc. Wilder’s intent is to foster dialogue about the relationship between individual identity and the
multiple, intersecting forms of social construction in our culture. By creating artwork that reflects his own
process of social deconstruction, he endeavors to encourage viewers to similarly disentangle their individual
identities from social constructs through introspection and discussion. This is Wilder’s form of activism.
Originally from Arizona, Aaron Wilder has also lived in Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and France and
currently resides in San Francisco. Wilder has been creating art since 2002 and has shown at exhibitions
across the United States as well as in Italy. Wilder received his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in
2017. Venues that have recently displayed his work include Adeline's Lab in Berkeley, Amos Eno Gallery in
New York, ARC Gallery in Chicago, Bass & Reiner in San Francisco, Bath House Cultural Center in Dallas, the
Boston Society of Architects, Con Artist Collective in New York, Fireplace Gallery at Mount Hood Community
College in Oregon, the Foundry Art Centre in Missouri, GearBox Gallery in Oakland, the Gertrude Herbert
Institute of Art in Georgia, Hera Gallery in Rhode Island, the Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, the Museum of
Northern California Art in Chico, the Petaluma Arts Center in California, the Rhode Island Center for
Photographic Arts in Providence, Root Division in San Francisco, Saint Mary's College Museum of Art in
California, the San Francisco Mint, Santa Paula Art Museum in California, Site:Brooklyn in New York, the
Studio Door in San Diego, and Wanderlife Gallery in Philadelphia.