Twink Time at Barbizon

Director Statement

Inspired by the realist, lush, and modest landscapes of the Barbizon school, Twink Time at Barbizon juxtaposes queer femme/fem tropes (monocle, leather jacket, pink hair) with mutating materialities and textures (river, ice, fireworks, winds). This juxtaposition gives shape and space to a scampering of safety and expression we rarely experience in crowded outdoor spaces. Twink Time at Barbizon places three queer bodies within a New York City forest in Queens and, very briefly, in Brooklyn to reclaim a Queer imaginary in which gender nonconformists serendipitously find each other outdoors in an everyday context. This was the big rebellion of the Barbizon school—they abandoned their studios to make work outside, sensorially. They chose local, picturesque locations close to home rather than travel abroad for “proper outdoor painting” in Italy, as the French Academy demanded.