project5

Clyde Petersen

As the twig is bent, so is the tree inclined, 2022

Recycled Cardboard, Hot Glue, Driftwood, Lumber

12x10x12’

Presented by J. Rinehart Gallery


What is the truth but a matter of time? On the rings of this tree, you will find a timeline presented by Northwest queer artist Clyde Petersen. This is a personal investigation and culmination of lived experiences, personal choices, life-altering moments and lingering traumas.

On the other side of this tree, you will find a blank timeline. At this moment, I invite you to consider the events and consequences that have led you to exist as you do today. To momentarily ponder something that you have been ignoring. To be curious about a feeling you have been unwilling to part with. What are you holding and what can you finally set down?

Clyde Petersen (they/he) is a transgender Northwest artist, working in film, animation, music, installation, and fabulous spectacle. He re-creates lost worlds and documents queer culture that has been largely erased by AIDS, capitalism and gentrification. He works to offer alternate, more equitable realities and futures through the reexamination of overlooked histories of queer communities. His work is slow and patient, animating only a few seconds of film a day, gathering new oral histories and building scale-model worlds to tell stories in.

Clyde has been the recipient of the Artist Innovators Award, The Neddy at Cornish, The Stranger Genius Award, Amazon Artist Residency, the NEFA Touring Artists Grant, and project grants from 4Culture, Office of Arts and Culture and Artist Trust throughout the years. His work has been featured in museums, galleries, DIY spaces and film festivals around the world. He is represented by J. Rinehart Gallery in Seattle.

Installation construction by Clyde Petersen, Remi Starston, Dre Gordon and Webster Crowell.