Alloy’s sculptures claim driftwood and leather as conduits of ancestral presence, shaped into assertions of collective queer immortality.

Molly Alloy (b. 1981)

Based in Portland, OR since 2008, on the land of the Multnomah, Kathlamet, Chinook, Kalapuya, and many other Tribes

I make relational objects, primarily from driftwood and leather. I believe trees and animals to be kin, and I create devotional sculptures from their remnants as a way of giving my love and attention to them. I am changed by my intimacy with the objects I make, learning about the land, the lives of my kin, and myself from what they show me. For example I have learned a great deal about the lives of beavers and the ecosystems they manage from collecting driftwood that they have sculpted.

I do this work as an inherently queer practice; I am trans, nonbinary and neuromagical. It is communion with queer ancestors and Mother Earth. It is done with the goal of Land Back and restoration of indigenous life-ways; I am a parent. It is done as a healing practice for my body; I live with Stage IV Endometriosis and Stage IV Cancer. It is done as a gift.