Eileen Mueller

DYKE MYSTICISM

Conjuring the mercurial nature of becoming I seek to both fiction and believe in a Dyke Mysticism. This work looks to an era when separatist dyke communities formed at the frayed edges of a male-dominated, heterocentric society. To separate dykes had to learn and share self-sufficient practices so that they could grow their own food and build their own houses on their own land. The DIY practices of this back to the land movement extended beyond sustainable living. Independent cultural production played a key role in forming this movement. Dykes around the country and the world served as both author and reader as they formed their own presses, video production teams, screening venues, and more. As a result a rich trove of texts exists that document this history. As my dyke predecessors did before me I have turned my camera towards the community of queer women that fill my life. Following their lead I process my own footage, forming the image by hand. I film unseen forces and unnameable traits. With a newly articulated queer gaze I look for the moments when material and practice merge with dyke iconography. How can a projected image transmute an object? Does a secret history evade observation? Is there a key to unlock this mythology? Is our ancestry real or imagined?

This work emerges out of a photographic series of proposed way-finding markers that might lead to a secret location accessible only by dykes. This poses the question: how do we find our way to our unseeable selves and our camouflaged compatriots? Beyond iconographic gestures and desires, what are the metaphysical ties that bind us? What unseen physical forces pulling us towards each other? In this piece I will attempt to tune-in to Dyke Mysticism and wade through the pink noise in an attempt to find our brotherhood.