Aaron McIntosh

Hot House / Maison chaude is both an evolving queer ecology network and a series of related artworks, as well as a structural and theoretical container for both. Through investigations of plant forms that have co-evolved alongside human sexualities and understandings of gender, McIntosh’s newest body of work reframes common notions of the “natural” and instead articulates queerness using a spectrum of non-normative, non-reproductive sexual and gender capacities found in plants. The exhibition draws from nature studies and queer knowledge to create an immersive and interactive installation, filled with plants, both real and constructed. Informed by the “hot houses” of the 19th century, which nourished the growth of rare species, the project creates scenarios where diverse queer bodies across global human history are brought into dialogue with historic and speculative plant-life. Drawing on fields such as queer ecology, science fiction, ethnobotany, eco-feminism, and social practice, the project cross-pollinates multiple disciplines to cultivate attention for queer communities and their unique needs. 

As a participant-driven project, Hot House / Maison Chaude is envisioned as a fertile space for initiating new queer dialogues. The project exists in three entangled acts. qMatter, or queer compost, was launched in 2021, with a pandemic-era mail art zine sent to 2SLGBTQIA+ across Turtle Island asking them to contribute organic, fibrous materials emblematic of their queer existence. These contributions are transformed into activated paper compost, and dispersed as queer compost vectors. Exuberant Botanica, which launched in 2022, is an index of companion plants of the natural world that have intertwined histories with human sexual and gender evolutions, along with a series of botanic drawings, appliqué botanic prints and teaching models of speculative plant 'herbals' for healing contemporary queer issues created from participants, who were asked to consider ailment and remedy as they contribute their own ideas for speculative queer herbals. The final act, Hot House/Maison chaude, is this exhibition, which brings together all elements within a simulated greenhouse and Wardian case redux, housing interactive plants—both speculative sculptures and live plants—being nourished by the 'queer compost', presented alongside Exuberant Botanica drawings and quilts, and the two participant zines. At a moment where anti-trans and homophobic rhetoric are on the rise in Canada and the US, this project offers a generative space for imagining thriving queer ecosystems.