I WANT TO GROW OLD WITH ALL OF YOU
Lou Wheeler is a Narrm/Melbourne based emerging metalwork artist with a special interest in ancient and traditional craft practices. Lou’s practice prioritises fundamental yet demanding techniques such as hand engraving and forging as a means of exploring skill and craft within their broad body of work.
Instagram: @shit_wheels
The ritualistic practice of intergenerationally gifting heirlooms is a universal, yet often conventionally heteronormative notion which symbolises the continuation of family identity through bloodline. I Want To Grow Old With All Of You is a re-appropriation of the heirloom gifting tradition which allows for heirlooms to usurp hierarchical blood relations to exist within the context of an intergenerational queer family.
I Want To Grow Old With All Of You is a collection of pieces which explore ageing and identity by subverting the nuclear family paradigm through a queer lens to re-appropriate the traditional significance of heirlooms. Heirlooms gifted within a queer family represent a merger of community and family which nurture diverse identities regardless of bloodline.
Each object within the collection embodies a level of personal maturity, identity and care through unique symbols which represent significant queer life events such as coming out, finding community, raising children and caring for elders.