Clyde Petersen
Clyde Petersen is a transgender Northwest artist who works in film, animation, music, installation, and fabulous spectacle. He re-creates lost worlds and documents cultures largely erased by AIDS, capitalism, and gentrification. He works to offer alternate, more equitable realities and futures through the reexamination of overlooked histories. 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.
His piece, USS Enterprise NCC 1701-D, is part of the Juried Group Show in the Red Barn.
JURIED GROUP SHOW
Featuring flight-inspired works from 23 artists. Explore surprising expressions in glass sculptures, experimental textiles, prints, photographs, paintings, and multimedia creations.
USS Enterprise NCC 1701-D, was featured in a Star Trek cosplay music video for the band Your Heart Breaks with special guest Kimya Dawson, both Northwest artists.
Clyde is the director of Torrey Pines, a stop-motion animated feature film with a live score that toured the world for two years. Torrey Pines is an autobiographical film about growing up with a schizophrenic mother as a queer youth in the early ‘90s. His new film Even Hell Has Its Heroes, a documentary about the legendary Seattle band Earth, shot entirely on Super8 film, is premiering in 2023.
Using large-scale installations to draw viewers into the landscape of his films, Clyde’s solo exhibitions often feature life-size replicas of objects and nature. Made entirely of cardboard, these landscapes fill the room and surround his film projections.
Petersen is a recipient of the Artist Innovators Award, The Neddy at Cornish, The Stranger Genius Award, an Amazon Artist Residency, and the NEFA Touring Artists Grant. His work has been featured in museums, galleries, DIY spaces, and film festivals around the world. Petersen is represented by J. Rinehart Gallery in Seattle.
Courtesy of Clyde Petersen and The J. Rinehart Gallery