To confront a Toor then is to reckon with the nature of art history itself. And simultaneously, it is to imagine a vision of optimistic queer futurity that begins with recognition as a radical form of community building. From paintings of beleaguered South Asian folks worn out in airport security lines, to reconfigurations of queer non-binary folks caught in the heady desire of an embrace, Toor carves out a space for new and vivacious subjectivities that have long been hushed or glossed over.
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How quickly artists can fade into obscurity if information about them is behind paywalls or links to exhibits are dead.
My old friend and I stopped talking, and it's largely my fault.
Spending time in the archives and, like most people I know, receiving numerous mutual aid requests, I’m struck by how both senninbari and fundraisers remind us of human-made tragedies and policy failures, as well as the commitment individuals and communities can make to each other, despite.
I felt like it was my duty to uncover these stories — in a way I had to move through them, making paintings inspired by them and I even made a short film about this familial excavation with a wonderful group of female collaborators.
