Dog Collar, 2025

materials: beeswax, damar resin, pigment on wood board

40 x 30 cm

Dog Collar is a self-portrait in beeswax, a medium steeped in religious tradition and used historically for icon paintings that venerate figures of faith. In this work, I adopt the aesthetic of the clergy, an illusion created by wearing my Adidas sports shirt beneath a black jacket, yet I stand in direct opposition to the doctrine that educated my childhood.

This piece challenges the authority of religious institutions that have long dictated moral hierarchies, reinforcing exclusion and oppression under the guise of righteousness. I am not of the cloth because I am pro-equality. Pro-science. Pro-Queer. Pro-Trans. Pro-bodily autonomy. Pro-freedom of belief, or no belief at all. Pro-LGBTQIA+ youth having a future. Pro-love. I am pro-everything religion raised me to resist.

The face appears to melt away, reflecting a time when, as a gay boy, I could not see a future for myself in the world around me. But that future arrived, and I thrived.

The wax, with its strength and fragility, echoes the weight of tradition but also the possibility of transformation. Like the icons of old, Dog Collar presents a figure for contemplation, but one who opposes sanctification, instead embodying a defiant, compassionate and radically inclusive presence.