Ace Tilton Ratcliff
they/them
Boynton Beach, FL, USA
Ace Tilton Ratcliff is a disabled, autistic, trans-nonbinary multidisciplinary artist. Their work grapples with self discovery through difficult life experiences that make for bad small talk but damn good art. They’ve been a metalsmith for 3 years.
“Growing up in religious south Florida at the homophobic turn of the millennium, it took decades before I felt safe calling myself queer. It’s taken even longer to recognize myself as disabled, neuroatypical, & trans-nonbinary. During all the years of reconciliation, jewelry—both the act of wearing & the art of creation—has been a reliable way to unite past, present, & future versions of myself. These three pieces define that liminal connection between versions of myself, the reality of my queerness, and myself within these marginalized communities, both literally and metaphorically.”
"Paean to a Tail Wag", Cast dog humerus bone from cremation, prong set radius dog bone from cremation, Montana agate, apatite, sterling silver, bronze, 3” x 2.5”, 2023
What does being queer mean to you in relation to your material choices? Is it something you consider?
“Each piece I create is borne from trying to understand & further clarify to myself how I move through the world, & since I move through the world in a queer, disabled, trans-nonbinary body as an autist, each material choice is considered through the lens of queerness insomuch as my very existence is.
While some work may more overtly address queerness through material choice—such as literally using my own toe bone, a piece removed from my queer body— others may be a more subtle representation or metaphor. My work as a metalsmith causes flares of chronic pain or dislocations within my queer body, which means my work is infused with hurt, or altered by the act of adjusting on the fly to work with my body as it exists that day.
My body is queer; my work is queer as a result."
"Hallux Vulgar", Sterling silver, topaz, 1" x .5", 2023
Is the work queer because the maker is queer, or is it queer because the subject matter is queer?
“The work is about the artist existing in the world; the artist is queer. Thus, the maker’s queerness makes the subject matter queer. The two are inextricable.
‘Paean to a Tail Wag’ is an homage to my dogs, none of whom loved me less for my queerness. Each component represents a specific memory or a dog-related emotion. Meditating on them is a call to linger in the felicity of that connection.
‘Hallux Vulgar’ uses a piece of my toe bone removed during surgery, cast, then cut in half. It speaks to the strangeness of living in a disabled body, diagnosed with a collagen disorder that makes me significantly more statistically likely to be queer as well as neuroatypical. Wearing it, I am reunited with my disconnected body part & similarly feel reconnected to the Venn diagram of my own marginalizations.
‘Aversion’ is a necklace confronting mental illness, which can feel inherently disconnecting. Forcing myself to create a necklace of tiny mistakes—the centerpiece of silver & kyanite leans to the side when worn, the quartz I cut has inclusions, the hole motif is unsettling & uneven—forces me to confront the commonalities between my autism and my limiting obsessive compulsive behaviors."
"Aversion", Kyanite, sterling silver, cubic zirconia in purple and clear, bronze, 2" x .5" x 18", 2023
Anything else you would like to share about this work? This can be an important part of the process, sourcing materials, or research.
“For ‘Paean’, the bronze bone was cast from the humerus of my dog Harper. The tube-set apatite is the exact color of the collar she wore. The prong-set bone below is her radius, retrieved after cremation. The broken end would have connected to the cast piece in life. The Montana agate was chosen because it reminded me of my current dog Rupert, who came to me pure white puppy but developed spots over the next few weeks. The seat of that setting holds one of his whiskers plus fur trimmed from the tail of my other two living dogs, Bashi and Ezra. The engraving on the back of the cabochon setting are the last lines from the obituary written for my dog Roland after his unexpected death in 2019. Roland was the first dog I owned as an adult. He set the bar high for all who have followed.
For ‘Hallux’, the silver pieces surrounding the topaz are cast from my own toe bone, removed during surgery due to a permanent toe dislocation.
For ‘Aversion’, I hit an artist’s block related to perfection. I selected the quartz, which I’d cut myself previously, from a pile of rejected work & created the piece with a week’s deadline plus the goal to not focus on any of my perceived mistakes or imperfections."
