The Survival Compromise is a project that explores the challenges faced by queer and female creatives in a capitalist society defined by wealth disparity and systemic exploitation. As billionaires thrive, the rights and creative expressions of non-binary and transgender individuals and women become increasingly vulnerable. This work illuminates how queer and female creatives cultivate resilience while navigating persistent threats to their bodily autonomy and the economic instability imposed by capitalism.

This exhibition of works in progress documents Uretsky’s ongoing development of The Survival Compromise project. Featured works include video stills, sketches, the puppet created for the video, and a hand-embroidered, upside-down American flag. This flag became central to the project and to Uretsky's collaboration with the Womxn Project. The piece draws inspiration from historic images of women sewing flags—such as “The Star-Spangled Banner” by illustrator Gerry Embleton, which depicts flagmaker Mary Pickersgill, her 13-year-old daughter Caroline, two nieces (Eliza Young and Margaret Young), and Grace Wisher, a 13-year-old African American indentured servant, hand-stitching a 30’ x 42’ flag for Fort McHenry in 1813. Uretsky became curious about the conversations these women might have shared. What did stitching the flag mean to them? What did it mean to Grace Wisher? Emulating these women, Uretsky and the Womxn Project hosted “Stitch & Chats” events—gatherings for conversation and collective hand-stitching of an upside-down American flag, the official signal of extreme emergency and a recognized symbol of distress.

The Survival Compromise is designed to spark conversations about survival in today's political climate. The project seeks to activate public spaces with stories of perseverance, highlighting how women and queer artists navigate, subvert, create, and survive under capitalism.

About the Artist:
J.R. Uretsky is an artist and musician from Rhode Island who collaborates with others to create collective emotional experiences, multimedia artworks, and music performances. Drawing on religious and intergenerational trauma, their work incorporates humor, personal narratives, and pop culture references to explore queer joy and grief, blurring the lines between autobiography and fiction. At the core of Uretsky’s work is a fascination with interpersonal relationships and emotions. Their multisensory artworks engage viewers with videos, music, and meticulously crafted abstract yet familiar objects that embody feelings from despair to pleasure. In their performances as J.R. and the Worship Band, Uretsky uses live music and video to satirize Western Evangelical worship, transforming personal trauma into collective catharsis. Audiences are invited to sing together about queer experiences, heartbreak, and going to therapy.

Website: jruretsky.com(opens in new tab)
Instagram: @jr_worshipband(opens in new tab)

COLLABORATORS & SUPPORTERS 

• Cinematographer & Photographer: Anabel Vázquez Rodríguez(opens in new tab)
• Anti-Capitalist Consultant: Brooke Erin Goldstein(opens in new tab)
• The Womxn Project Education Fund

The Survival Compromise body of work at A|R|T Lab is supported by the Interlace Grant Fund, a partner of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, as well as funding from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts through state appropriations and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts.