CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 6/8/2023

LJ Roberts embroiders their queer and trans community in 'Carry You With Me

“David John Sokolowski & Michael Tikili” (2014) is reproduced from LJ Roberts: Carry You With Me, collecting a decade’s worth of embroidered portraits of the artist’s friends, collaborators and lovers within the queer and trans community. Roberts notes the place or places where each piece was stitched and writes a note about its meaning. In this case: “David is in a flashy coat, the kind my Jewish grandmother would wear to a restaurant. His green mascara highlights his eyes. Michael is adorned in a leather harness; his sultry gaze matches his lush gold chain. We spend so much time readying ourselves for parties. We search for outfits that generate just the right electricity to power us until early morning, or, if we are lucky, dawn. Leaning on the bar, we work to get the attention of the bare-chested bartender. Trying to get the 8-Ball into the corner pocket is a weekend well-spent. The ritual of dressing together—adjusting suspenders, buckling straps, collective swipes of red lipstick, and then shimmying into a too-tight tube-top—is just as vibrant and raucous as the party we end up at.”