Artist Joey Brock
RICH LOPEZ | Staff writer
Rich@DallasVoice.com
In any given weekend night on The Strip, a street preacher may gather like-minded folks to spew anti-gay sentiments supposedly rooted in the Bible. Queer folks may either ignore or engage them, depending on the mood they’re in (or number of drinks they’ve had). All that the preacher does is deliver a message of hate and prejudice targeting the community, claiming the message comes from God.
But what if queer people and identities were all in God’s plan?
If you believe in God, that is.
This is the question and purpose behind Zona 7 Gallery’s latest exhibit, Heavenly Bodies, Earthly Wounds, featuring works by gay Dallas artist Joey Brock. The Fort Worth gallery situated in Sundance Square opened the exhibit during Pride Month, and it continues through August. And with this exhibit is a project Brock has had in mind for some time.
“I think it’s even more important now to speak out, especially in light of the religious groups that have been infiltrating our neighborhood shaming and spewing their othering language in our safe spaces. This makes me angry,” Brock first said in an email.
So in Heavenly Bodies, he flips the script.
“The Christian doctrine casts queer bodies as sinful or unnatural. But this asks ‘What if othering was divine all along?’” he explained. “I am looking at queer experience not as a deviation but stemming from grace.”
Originally, the show was to be centered on LGBTQ+ stories through original art, but the timeline didn’t quite work with Brock. With this show in the back of mind, it was both the perfect time and opportunity.
“I’ve been holding on to these images for years to do this show. I have been wanting to address religious doctrine in my way,” he said.
Brock isn’t the religious type, but religion wasn’t far away in his upbringing: His grandfather was a Primitive Baptist minister. While he’s more spiritual than religious, he does have an understanding of the teachings of Jesus.
“There are so many references in the Bible for other ‘sins,’ but everyone today seems to hyperfocus on the queer aspects,” the artist said. “Growing up gay in Texas and during the AIDS crisis, we were always demonized. So that plays into some of these portraits.”
Brock takes religious iconography and gives it a queer spin. The exhibition features images of cherubs, angels and even God through a diverse mix of models. The artist specifically created a landscape of queer BIPOC bodies.
“These queer bodies are here to challenge the notion of what it is to truly be godlike,” he said.
“I’m taking the shame put on us and reclaiming the embodiment of spirituality as our own.”
To add to his message, the subjects all present androgynous and almost genderless. Brock reasons that kindness is genderless, spirit is genderless; thus, spirituality and even religion even should be genderless as well.
Additional pieces in the exhibition that have been shown before add to the show’s themes.
All the works lean into the duality of shame and overcoming that shame.
“I really wanted to give a safe space for this imagery and for people seeing it,” he said. ■
Brock will have an Artist’s Talk on July 12 at 3 p.m. at Zona 7 Gallery, 404 Houston St. in Fort Worth. JoeyBrockArt.com. Heavenly Bodies, Earthly Wounds runs through Aug. 10.
