Work ︎︎︎ A Good Year For the Roses (William Jared Leon: 29 years old, 6 feet, 157 lbs, hazel (eyes), brown (hair))

A Good Year For the Roses… is primarily a photographic archive of my husband’s possessions initiated in reaction to an event that fundamentally altered my life with him. Large grids of photographs of his objects have been separated into categories—either by type or colour—and spread out, implying their owner. At the core of the work is a collection of discarded tissues containing seminal fluid, which I have collected from my husband, each one meticulously weighed, photographed and dated. The work is defined by obsession; futile and disconnected attempts to possess somebody; desire and the resulting contest between the act of frantically seeking to create/recreate as well as hold onto a true representation of a person, and the undeniable weight of the fact that it can only ever be the trivial effects that can be grasped. Most of all, though, the work is a way to explore, mark, and archive a relationship.

Produced with support by Arts Nova Scotia