STEVEN MUIR

Steve Muir is from Nevada City, a small town nestled in the Western foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Identifying himself as an artist when convenient, his work explores two kinds of navigation: one internally through what it means to be both queer and rural, and one externally through what it means to be dependent on a failing healthcare system. 

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Primarily a photographer, Steve’s fine art photography consists of both landscapes and self portraiture. This work is color analog, printed at scales ranging from 3x4 feet to 4x6 feet, shot on both 35mm and 120mm film. He is in the process of constructing wood frames for this work, interested in physicality and the kind of rural masculinity that centers around creating. This body of work begs the question what does it mean to have a body that is safer in the city? There is a continual narrative that queerness is somehow inherently metropolitan, that it is unusual to be a queer farmer or a queer woodsman; that those who are irreparably queer looking must escape whatever small town we are raised in and go to thrive in the big city. But the big city is not a place everyone will thrive nor is it reasonable to prioritize queerness above all other identifiers. The more queer people are driven into cities out of fear the longer it becomes until they have resources in the places they come from; the artist is curious what it would mean to stand his ground, both literally and figuratively.

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When working outside of, or in addition to, the medium of photography, Steve also screenprints and makes books. All of these mediums have potential for repetition, be it multiple copies of the same thing or many small variations. In his recent book, Please Stand By, a single paragraph is repeated over the course of 32 pages. At first appearing as though it will be a solid amount of text to sit down with, the reader quickly realizes that they have been going in circles that mirror the circular problems associated with health insurance. The books themselves are printed very cheaply and stapled together, made for being given out and taken home. Repetition, be it through books or screenprints or darkroom prints is a good mechanism for creating work that people feel is acceptable to engage with by taking a print or copy home, and lends itself to the dissemination of information and responsibility.

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This dissemination of information and responsibility is key to his work about healthcare, is a demand for collective action and solidarity from those who do not find themselves dependent on prescriptions or inpatient visits. Relationships with healthcare providers have been a constant in his life for as long as he can remember; he is a survivor of munchausen's by proxy in childhood and adolescence, reliant on psychiatric treatment and medications as an adult, and has chosen to medically transition. He often makes work that uses his own personal experiences as a window into a more widespread issue that those seeking healthcare in the United States face. His work in this vein can be described as a manifesto with three main points: most alternative medicine is a dangerous scam (and to turn people away from it the legitimate medical system must improve), those with psychosis must be given greater say in their care and greater ability to report abuse by practitioners and facilities, and absolutely no one should ever experience financial hardship in exchange for seeking care. 

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    He currently resides in Richmond, Virginia.