Queer Heresies | Kevin Talmer Whiteneir Jr

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Kevin Talmer Whiteneir Jr. is an interdisciplinary artist and art historian based in Chicago, USA. His work explores the relationships between gender and queer experiences relating to race, the effects of (neo)colonialism, and its alignment with magic, religion, and witchcraft.

Whiteneir's performance art focuses on the building of altars and creating worship spaces that draw upon the rituals of witchcraft to highlight their connection to queer identities and experiences. These rituals comment on the consequences of colonialism that continue to impact contemporary communities.

Kevin Talmer Whiteneir Jr

Queer Heretics: Witches’ Sabbath [performance still], 2015

Photographed by Jean Stevens

Images courtesy of artist via: https://activisthistory.com/2019/05/24/queer-heresies-witchcraft-and-magic-as-sites-of-queer-radicality/

and https://www.queerheresies.com

I was interested in Whiteneir's writing "Queer Heresies: Witchcraft and Magic as Sites of Queer Radicality" in response to and supplementing his performance art as this project is is many ways about exploring and highlighting hidden parts of history that can be used to shape our present and future. It is an intervention into the contemporary art world as a queer artist and art historian of colour that implements the rituals of witchcraft.

The project "Queer Heretics: Witches' Sabbath" was of particular interest to me due to its performative nature serving as a ritual embodiment of the themes it's discussing. In the performance, Whiteneir embodies the Black Devil (a position curated in European and coloniser witchcraft histories) in a way that attempts to direct the ritual and form a space where queerness gains authority. By embodying an avatar of this archetype he performs through the lens of a queer person of colour trying to glean power within an unbalanced social system, rather than through a colonist lens.

I took inspiration from Whiteneir's work and writings as he invokes a sense of unashamed occupation of identity within spaces built to discourage such ownership being taken over oneself. This is something that I wanted to evoke in my own work.

I have also been in contact with Whiteneir, since first asking for and receiving information for my BA dissertation, to discuss these concepts further and consider how witchcraft and ritual in art practice can be used to enable people who exist outside of the majority to garner self-sovereignty and healing.