I am Stacey Kirby I am a Durham based
artist in the area 919 show at the
National Museum of Art at Duke
University one of the reasons I started
creating political work is based on some
experiences I've had in North Carolina
as a queer female I think one of the
moments that is very prominent in my
mind is driving around Durham during the
campaigning for and against amendment
one which did ban gay marriage North
Carolina in seeing those placed in
really anonymous weird areas not in
people's front yards but in kind of like
general public spaces almost as if
people didn't want to claim that they
were for a divisive amendment in North
Carolina it just felt hurtful for me
that these people that held these types
of perspectives and support for such a
horrible thing in my opinion would not
come out and have a conversation about
it wanted to kind of hide and I don't
think they fully even understood what
the amendment meant you know on all all
sides and so that just felt really
horrible for me as an individual part of
a community that needs support in love
and that's all we want to do to you know
support each other and love each other I
use humor as a way to put everyone on
the same level in the work including
myself I think when you make people
laugh it opens a part of them up that
allows you to have a more serious
conversation later maybe I am wearing a
very short haircut that's very stylized
with product no earrings I have 50's to
70's style glasses on bold black frames
I'm wearing a black coat with a tie and
a white collared button down shirt and
black slacks and black shoes and black
socks and I have my magnetic name tag
that labels me as a chief precinct
officer as Stacy L curvy so it's very
much a uniform for the bureaucratic
system or 4i feels kind of like federal
government not a lot of personality very
just simple black-and-white
straightforward clean cuts very
presentable with my clipboard yes
I always have to have a prop that
anchors me