Rowlinson’s over-sized sword stands proud, penetrating the earth with its deep black ,perfect high-shine surface reflecting the surroundings. The hilt is ready to be grasped but the word SISSY cuts through the piece like a taunt. Pierced and adorned by fetish-type chain jewellery, the sword’s heterosexual masculinity is re-interpreted, subverted and challenged. Rowlinson has an interest in hand gestures - particularly the limp wrist coded with queerness as performance - which brings humour to the idea of lifting this seemingly heavy weapon.

Blending fact and fiction, codified through medieval pageantry, heraldic reference and camp adornment, Rowlinson builds a textured and organic queer ecology, where nature is removed from heteronormative representation or binary meaning. To reclaim the natural world for LGBTQIA+ community he often uses flora and fauna or a backdrop of moss-green natural colours in his work.

The sword is constructed from two planes of black Perspex, bolted and riveted with aluminium chains and rings, supported on an internal metal frame.

Jakob Rowlinson (b.1990, Norwich UK) received an MA in Sculpture from the RCA in 2017 and completed a BFA from the Ruskin school of Art in 2013. Recent shows include: Visions of a Whispered Past, Quench Gallery, Margate UK; Made in Sweden, Tandsticksmuseet, Jonkoping (SWEDEN); Dissecting the Archive, Clearview, London UK; 6th Edition, Contemporary Sculpture Fulmer, Buckinghamshire; Group A, OOF gallery, Tottenham London; Amber Room, Reference Point Library, London; Ecarlate, 10 Crossley Street, London; Under Your Spell, Collective Ending HQ, London; Dreamlands II, OHSH, London; The Artist’s Oracle, The White Crypt Gallery, London; Peach Fuzz, The Factory, London ; Prick & Stitch, Standpoint Gallery, London. Rowlinson was a 2022 Artist-in-Residence at The Fores Project, London.