The Wild Unrest

"We two boys together clinging,
One the other never leaving,
Up and down the roads going—North and South excursions making,
Power enjoying—elbows stretching—fingers clutching,
Armed and fearless, eating, drinking, sleeping, loving,
No law less than ourselves owning. . . ."
-Walt Whitman

The Wild Unrest is an ongoing body of real and manufactured photographs that explores a dialogue between the elements of earth, sea, sky, and the human figure. While seemingly disparate in nature, this is the artist’s investigation of the simultaneous emergence of the Aesthetic Movement of the 19th Century and the concept of homosexuality as an innate identity rather than a behavior. Using Walt Whitman, Thomas Eakins, and Herman Melville as artistic pioneers and cultural touchstones, Kincaid has blurred the line not only between real and manufactured realities, but also between real and imagined histories.

 

Central to this body of work is the concept that the artist’s identity manifests itself in his aesthetic response to all subject matter, and that the concept of “queer art” must extend itself beyond what is traditionally accepted as such. In short, Kincaid’s photographic response to the male figure, the forested landscape, and the rolling waves are inseparable — and should be viewed as a single, cohesive statement and body of work.