Metal and I, Want the Same Thing
MERCEDES
JUNE 26 - SEPTEMBER 30, 2024
HERON ALEXANDRIA
699 PRINCE STREET, ALEXANDRIA, VA, 22314
Visible from Washington Street 24/7
Opening Reception + Artist Talk
JUNE 29 • 7-9 PM
Through kinetic sculpture, sound, and performance, Stephanie Mercedes creates rituals of liberation and mourning. Mercedes asks the question: how is melting down and transforming weapons a queer act? Like the queer body, metal is in a constant state of shapeshifting. Mercedes’ work meditates on queer vulnerability and material transformation.
In response to the Orlando Pulse Night Club Shooting, the artist melted the exact model of the rifle used to cast 49 liberty bells—one for each life lost. These liberty bells embody the paradox of American ideals, representing both liberation and a common symbol used by the alt-right to advocate for the Second Amendment.
The Line(s) of Fire series and the work displayed at Heron Hotel, Metal and I, Want the Same Thing, speaks to a larger body of work mourning the systematic nature of gun violence and homophobia. Mercedes creates work that responds to past and future violence against the queer community. Each “line” includes one bullet “chime” for every expected LGBTQIA+ person to die from mass gun violence in the year to come. A new Line(s) of Fire piece is created each year to mark one more year of the artist’s life and to anticipate and mourn the losses of life due to the systematic persistence of gun violence in US culture.
Mercedes’s most recent project, Never in Our Image, in collaboration with CulturalDC, is a three-part experimental opera exploring the artist’s processes of destroying and recasting weapons, envisioning a gun-free queer utopia.
Mercedes dreams of the day when all weapons have been melted, and their work is no longer necessary.
“I Hold You Close articulates the precarious emotions of being queer in a society riddled by violence. Using steel, forged and transformed weapons, and motors this installation reflects on my own experiences of queerness and queer love. Rather than framing vulnerability as a weakness, these works invite the viewer to consider vulnerability as a weapon.”
- Mercedes
Details from I Hold You Close and Lines of Fire. Photo credit: Amir Pourmand
MERCEDES
Mercedes (They/She) is a Queer Latinx artist working between performance, sculpture, metalwork, opera, techno, and sound. She is interested in creating rituals of queer liberation and rituals of queer mourning.
Mercedes comes from a long line of Argentine metalworkers and was a musician before she started making visual art. They have studied at Yale’s Norfolk program, Smith College, and the Art + Law Program. Mercedes has performed and exhibited in group shows at the Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian, the National Gallery of Art, the Bronx Museum, Paço das Artes Museum, the Queens Museum, the Daura Museum, the Museum of the Americas, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington. They are funded by NALAC, Light Works, The Foundation for Contemporary Art, and George Soros's Open Society Foundation. Their work has been featured on The Washington City Paper, Univision, Hyperallergic, and NPR's morning edition. Mercedes' more recent work reflects on queer club culture. They regularly host bullet melting ceremonies across the US.