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Mounted Trough 1 (Flushing Meadows), 2023
59 x 36 x 13 in.
Engraved stainless steel, found urinal trough
Engraved across a stainless steel trough urinal, an image emerges: a lone figure traverses a wooded park and picks his way over piles of branches and felled trees. This appropriated image, scrawled by Gentile's deft hand, could be found above the headline “Trees in a Queens Park Cut Down as Vigilantes Harass Homosexuals,” (New York Times, June 30, 1969). Drawing inspiration equally from traditional 17th century pastoral landscape etchings and graffitied backroom stalls, Gentile uses the act of defacement as a means of memorialization and reverence. Mounted Trough (Flushing Meadows) reclaims a moment of violence targeted at queer bodies, re-siting that historical moment into a subcultural space of pleasure, pain, and release.