How my work supports Magnet's mission to promote the health and well
being of gay [and homosexual] men in San Francisco:
Most people today consider the terms "gay" and "homosexual" to be
synonyms. I am not one of them. I consider myself to be a
homosexual, but not gay. "Homosexual", as a traditional label (men who
are sexually attracted to other men) has lost popularity do to it's
clinical nature as psychiatric terminology. It is part of a person's
whole, not who a person is. But, that is exactly why I prefer it, my
personal attractions don't define me. "Gay" is a culture that has
become more stream-lined, boring, and unoriginal than the status-quot.
"Gay" wants to fit in and be like everyone else. I have trouble
identifying with that culture. I refuse to clone myself into it. I am
proud of my attractions. I am proud of who I sleep with and who I
love, but that is not who I am as a whole. Modern gay culture, I
believe, does exactly what it was born as a fight against. It has
become a segregated normality instead of questioning what is "normal".
For example, the window displays of the Castro preach a certain body
type, or specific subgroup: bear, twink, etc. Gay Pride may have a
worthwhile purpose in rural America, but in places like San Francisco
it represents a desire to define one's self according to a collective
sexuality, not so much an expression of one's self. I hope that my
work will strike a chord with those who feel the same, and encourage a
little acceptance from those who feel differently.
Statement:
My work addresses the the whole of a person by addressing every aspect
of a person, myself as example. The messes we leave behind, a
neglected home, and ejaculate on a comic sleeve are among my subjects.
At Magnet, I would also like to address domestic violence between men,
the rural nature of my past and urban social issues that don't involve
sexuality and therefore seem unimportant to many members of the gay
community, with large format, cell phone and video photography.
Biography:
Timothy Luman Martin Jr. was born on May 12th, 1975; in Murfreesboro
TN. His mother was a school teacher and his father an electrician
studying to be a doctor. Though most of his childhood was a blur, he
remembers numerous beatings from his father as well as verbal and
emotional abuse. One incident was the direct result of Timothy playing
with a doll. He also remembers being pecked on the head by a crow
after playing with her child who had fallen from its nest. Once,
around the age of five, he rode in his crib that he had not slept in
since the age of two, as two movers carried it out to the moving van;
for a moment he felt safe. The beatings continued until around the age
of thirteen, when he started fighting back. Around this time he
renounced the teachings of Christ and stopped speaking in tongs.
Shortly after this he decided he was bisexual, drank a beer, smoked a
joint, and tripped on LSD. At the age of sixteen, he had his first
sexual experience in a red pick up truck. At seventeen he spent two
months in Europe, thought he fell in love, and canceled a trip as a
foreign exchange student to Australia because he thought he found "
the One" here in the U.S. At the end of this two month relationship it
was too late too reverse the cancellation, so he finished high school
early and moved to New Orleans, then New York (where he was raped at
nineteen), then Seattle ( where he changed his name to Roy Wyatt
Batty), then LA. He has had lots of sex, was addicted too cocaine, has
tried heroin and most other drugs at least once, and has been in at
least two abusive relationships. He moved to Nashville when his
grandmother died. He lived on her farm for six years attending Watkins
college. I've not yet decided what I think of his writing. But his
subject mater consists of strange mechanical animals, random moments
and boys he wants to fuck. His interests include domestic violence and
other disturbing behavior. He recently spent his one year anniversary
with San Francisco in the drunk tank. He wasn't drunk.
A review of my work. (refer to the image: "origin of the universe"):
__nym: "Sex Show"
by Jaime Raybin
The group's guest artist, Roy Wyatt Batty, presented a blunt yet
inconspicuous representation of sex. A projected photograph of what
appears to be space was displayed in a dark, closet-like crevice.
Looking at the piece gives the soothing, drugged effect of watching a
planetarium with bright but unmoving stars. After reading the title,
"Adolescent Projection", and noticing that others around you are
watching to see how you react, you might figure out that the projected
image is actually semen on a comic book sleeve. Even once you realize
the nature of the piece, the image itself is benign, only the idea is
squeamish. Amidst work that addresses sex in a conceptual way, this
piece is a confrontation of the ordinary. The fluid is not used as a
symbol of masculine power, but merely a byproduct, evidence of an
overwhelming encounter with an unknown object of fantasy.
---
Roy Wyatt Batty
