Boy Mechanic

"The Boy Mechanic" is an ongoing project that will document the history of lesbian bars in cities and towns across the United States and Europe. Loss of architecture and the frailties of public memories have often been the motivation for photographic documentation of changing urban spaces; focusing on the lesbian bar reveals how sexuality and sexual identity inform larger narratives about public identity and social space. It is my hope that the photographs, video, and maps of The Boy Mechanic will document and give authority to narrations of lesbian bar life, so often anonymous or mute, and now waning. I began the research in 1996 in San Diego and completed "The Boy Mechanic/San Diego" in 2004, "The Boy Mechanic/Cologne" (Germany) in 2006 and I began working on Los Angeles in 2005. Each city's character influences both the direction and methodology of the research and the type of art objects that I produce and how they are exhibited and distributed. The Boy Mechanic/Los Angeles website is a means for disseminating the material gathered quickly and to a wider audience than the time and space boundaries of an exhibition context and it will also function as a research tool for networking with those who can contribute their knowledge to the writing of this anecdotal history.