Baby Don't Go

12 - 20 x 24 Polaroid Prints
2017

Installation & Performance: Polaroid Studio, Lincoln Center, New York, NY

Baby Don't Go is a play on words that references the 1965 pop song of the same name by Sonny and Cher. This work explores notions of queer youthfulness, nature vs. nurture, and mortality vs materiality. 

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In 2017, LaFleur was invited to produce a new series using some of the only remaining film and the same 20x24 Polaroid Camera that her mentor, Mary Ellen Mark, often used in New York. After 2019, this camera will no longer be in use. The 20x24 Polaroid camera is a traditional view camera, but it weighs 235 pounds and sits on a wheeled frame with two rows of billows. The film, a large format instant polaroid film, produces a single positive image in color that is 20 x 24” in size. 

 

For this work, the artist and her mother dressed in drag as a young representation of Sonny and Cher, and embraced each other for 6 solid hours, as their image was captured like a puzzle in a grid. The act of embracing one another for a solid work day, and the laborious use of this specific camera as documentation, explores feminist notions or labour and loss.