Desire Paths by Avery Mags Duff

Desire Paths is Avery Mags Duff's exploration of the erotic, described by Audre Lorde as "a measure between the beginnings of our sense of self and the chaos of our strongest feelings." In this work, Avery uses imagery from their travels and explorations as a metaphor for how the erotic is woven through their life. These liminal spaces of transition that they have found themselves in have guided their gender transition and sexual explorations.

The title, “Desire Paths,” refers to physical pathways that emerge as shortcuts to constructed pathways. These shortcuts are carved out by people, animals, and even water or wind as alternatives to the often circuitous or non-existent routes constructed (or neglected) by the state apparatus.

This exhibition is organized by KINK Contemporary.

 MEET THE ARTIST

"These liminal spaces of transition that I have found myself in have guided my gender transition and sexual explorations. I also explore the erotic as it influences other deeply personal aspects of my life such as foraging, growing food, and spending my days outside in communion with the earth. Through drawing and painting these inherently erotic desire paths, I can access a deeper sense of belonging in my own body. Much of these works were made or conceived of outside of the studio, while traveling or in motion, and later translated to finished pieces at home. Also, many of these pieces were made during preparation and recovery for a gender-affirming surgery I recently underwent."

-Avery Mags Duff

Avery Mags Duff

Avery Mags Duff makes art that deepens their relationship with plants and their own body. Avery likes to look beyond the limitations of the human figure to explore alternatives in identity, expression, and gender. As an urban farmer, he sees plants as powerful and increasingly rare keepers of knowledge, history, and abundance in our chaotic world. They use paint, clay, sound, video, and other mediums to express their ideas.

Growing up in Akron, Ohio they have been making art their whole life. They are a graduate of the University of Akron with a BFA in Painting and a BA in Spanish. They are also active in urban farming, fermentation, foraging, and experimental music.

"I have found that my queer, non-monogamous existence and life narrative has been a process of constructing new trails (or navigating strange, alternative, hidden trails) through time, desire paths through the wild erotic. I live in gratitude for those queer elders who made my life possible and safe; and who, out of creative necessity, formed paths that I now walk on, carved by many footsteps over time."

-Avery Mags Duff