For String Quartet (2026), duration: 7’

This work is based off several photos by Peter Hujar, part of the ‘Orgasmic Man’ Collection (1969). Hujar was a contemporary of photographers and artists such as David Wojnarowicz and Diane Arbus – all of which in one way or another captured the experiences of queer people in 1960s New York. The photos have always haunted me. They capture several queer men at the point of ejaculation – one of the most inherently private and intimate human experiences. The photos make the viewer feel a sense of voyeuristic discomfort, because you can’t quite tell whether the subjects of the photos are in pleasure or in pain. All that you aware of is that you are trespassing on an intimate, vulnerable, and shameful state. This feeling of visceral discomfort was a starting point for my work, as I am fascinated with the idea of desire and how it’s projected in all my works. There’s also another level to the work. There is something intensely moving and poignant about Hujar’s work for me. He was cataloguing a collection of neglected experiences in the queer community that would have otherwise gone unnoticed and unremembered. There is a sense in all his photographs that the subject is trying to speak to the viewer through time, saying, ‘I was here, and I always will be.’ Now, we often associate the experience of being queer with joy, but there is the inevitable converse of that. The photography of Hujar is ultimately – for me – a reminder that we are allowed to feel joy and express love because of the protests and silent experiences of past generations. I come back to these photos often, and all the men in the photos still seem to be saying the same thing – ‘I was here.’ This work was written for the Mivos Quartet as part of the 2026 Vienna Contemporary Composer’s Festival.

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