Danielle deo Owensby
they/she | West Bloomfield, Michigan
Critical Stuff Member

Artist Statement: In Dante Alighieri’s epic poem, The Divine Comedy, Dante travels through hell, purgatory, and eventually into a heaven of his own construction, unscathed, but wiser at the end of his journey.

I’ve been drawn to Dante’s vivid descriptions of eternal damnation ever since I first read the poem as an English Literature student. Growing up in an extremist church, I experienced a constant struggle between my authentic self and the beliefs imposed upon me, and have often pondered the existence of the afterlife and have feared for my own damnation.

Using Dante's words as a road map, I am reimagining The Divine Comedy and applying it to my own journey as a previously closeted queer person trying to navigate this life and shake off the indoctrination of my childhood and adolescence. Through this work, I aim to explore the complexities of my identity and the transformative power of embracing my true self.

Using constructed imagery as a vehicle for allegories and a mix of literal interpretations from Dante's text and my own fantastical visions, I am pondering a few questions: What would my journey look like? What are the punishments for my sins, especially as a queer, purity-culture dropout? And, most importantly, how do I break these punishments down and banish them from my psyche and celebrate who I have become?