Molly Landreth, Ronni and Jo, Seattle, WA,
2005
Barnett Newman,
Onement I, 1948
Jackson Pollock, Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist),
1950
Hans Namuth photographs of Jackson Pollock,
1950
Hans Namuth, Willem and Elaine de Kooning,
1953
Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner
John Cage and Merce Cunningham
Cage, Cunningham, and Robert Rauschenberg
Andy Warhol
Gran Fury, Read My Lips (Boys), 1988
Gran Fury, The Government has Blood on Its
Hands, 1988
Felix Gonzalez-Torres,
1957-1996
Witnesses: Against Our
Vanishing, November 16
– January 6, 1990,
Protest outside Artists
Space
THE
INFLUENCE
OF
THE
NEW
MORALITY AND THE EFFECTIVE USE OF
AIDS AS THE MOST POWERFUL TOOL
FOR SEXUAL REPRESSION MAKES IT
EVEN MORE IMPERATIVE TO CONTINUE
TO CREATE AND EXHIBIT ART THAT
PORTRAYS SEXUALITY AS A POSITIVE
FORCE.
nan goldin
Robert Mapplethorpe, The Perfect Moment, The
Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia,
December 9 – January 29, 1989
Robert Mapplethorpe, Joe, 1978
Ken Moody and Robert Sherman, 1984
Cover of ARTFORUM, September 1989
Robert Mapplethorpe, Rosie, 1976
The NEA Four (and Martha Wilson): Holly Hughes,
Tim Miller, John Fleck, Karen Finley, 2004
Hide/Seek: Difference
and Desire in American
Portraiture, National
Portrait Gallery,
Smithsonian, Washington,
DC, October 30 –
February 13, 2011
David Wojnarowicz, A Fire in My Belly (film in
progress), 1986-87 (still)
Protests against the Smithsonian’s removal of
Wojnarowicz’s A Fire in My Belly from Hide/Seek:
Difference and Desire in American Portraiture
QUEER AND OTHER INSURGENTS HAVE LONG
STRIVEN,
OFTEN
DANGEROUSLY
OR
SCANDALOUSLY, TO CULTIVATE WHAT GOOD FOLKS
USED TO CALL CRIMINAL INTIMACIES. WE HAVE
DEVELOPED RELATIONS AND NARRATIVES THAT ARE
ONLY RECOGNIZED AS INTIMATE IN QUEER
CULTURE: GIRLFRIENDS, GAL PALS, FUCKBUDDIES,
TRICKS. QUEER CULTURE HAS LEARNED NOT ONLY
HOW TO SEXUALIZE THESE AND OTHER RELATIONS,
BUT ALSO TO USE THEM AS A CONTEXT FOR
WITNESSING INTENSE AND PERSONAL AFFECT
WHILE ELABORATING A PUBLIC WORLD OF
BELONGING AND TRANSFORMATION. MAKING A
QUEER WORLD HAS REQUIRED THE DEVELOPMENT
OF KINDS OF INTIMACY THAT BEAR NO NECESSARY
RELATION TO DOMESTIC SPACE, TO KINSHIP, TO THE
COUPLE FORM, TO PROPERTY, OR TO THE NATION.
lauren berlant & michael warner
Jamie Q,
What Makes an
Object Queer?,
2011
IF WE PRESUME THAT SEXUALITY IS CRUCIAL
TO BODILY ORIENTATION, TO HOW WE INHABIT
SPACES, THEN THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN
HOW WE ARE ORIENTATED SEXUALLY ARE NOT
ONLY A MATTER OF “WHICH” OBJECTS WE ARE
ORIENTATED TOWARD, BUT ALSO HOW WE
EXTEND THROUGH OUR BODIES IN THE
WORLD. SEXUALITY WOULD NOT BE SEEN AS
DETERMINED ONLY BY OBJECT CHOICE, BUT
AS INVOLVING DIFFERENCES IN ONE’S VERY
RELATION TO THE WORLD—THAT IS, IN HOW
ONE “FACES” THE WORLD OR IS DIRECTED
TOWARD IT. OR RATHER, WE COULD SAY THAT
ORIENTATIONS TOWARD SEXUAL OBJECTS
AFFECT OTHER THINGS THAT WE DO, SUCH
THAT DIFFERENT ORIENTATIONS, DIFFERENT
WAYS OF DIRECTING ONE’S DESIRES, MEANS
INHABITING DIFFERENT WORLDS.
IT IS NOT SIMPLY THE OBJECT THAT
DETERMINES THE “DIRECTION” OF ONE’S
DESIRE; RATHER THE DIRECTION ONE
TAKES MAKES SOME OTHERS AVAILABLE AS
OBJECTS TO BE DESIRED. BEING DIRECTED
TOWARD THE SAME SEX OR THE OTHER
SEX BECOMES SEEN AS MOVING ALONG
DIFFERENT LINES.
sara ahmed
THE
BRADY
BUNCH!
From Awkward Family Photos website
(with apologies if these are your family photos)
From Awkward Family Photos website
(again, sincere apologies, if these are your photos)
Still from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, 1975
Frank, Brad, and Janet
United Colors of Benetton, 1992
Photograph of David Kirby and family by Therese
Frare, 1990
Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Untitled (Perfect Lovers),
1991
Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Untitled (Portrait of Ross in
L.A.), 1991
Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Untitled (Bed), 1991
Molly Landreth, Ronni and Jo, Seattle, WA,
2005
COVERING
THE
WALLS,
ARE
PHOTOGRAPHS.
THE
WEDDING
PHOTOGRAPH. UNDERNEATH ARE THE
FAMILY PICTURES, SOME FORMAL AND
OTHERS MORE CASUAL … EVERYWHERE I
TURN, EVEN IN THE FAILURE OF MEMORY,
REMINDS ME OF HOW THE FAMILY HOME
PUTS OBJECTS ON DISPLAY THAT MEASURE
SOCIALITY
IN
TERMS
OF
THE
HETEROSEXUAL GIFT.
sara ahmed
Jim Verburg, Family Album Number One, 2009
Jim Verburg, For a Relationship, 2007
NO ONE SEEMS TO HAVE A
SEXUALITY … EXCEPT FOR
ME.
jim verburg
Glenn Ligon,
A Feast of Scraps, 199498
WE ARE TAUGHT THAT, IF WE FEEL WE REALLY
MUST HAVE A RECORD OF THE SHAMEFUL
SAME-SEX PORTIONS OF OUR LIVES, THEN WE
SHOULD DO SO BY HAVING TWO ALBUMS, DUAL
COLLECTIONS, ONE FOR BLOOD RELATIONS
AND ONE FOR OUR SAME GENDER LOVING
BROTHERS AND SISTERS. AND THEY SHOULD
NOT BE ALLOWED TO INTERSECT. OUR
ORIENTATION IS MEANT TO BE ISOLATED,
SEPARATE FROM AND ALIEN TO THE LIVES WE
LIVE WITH OUR ‘REAL’ FAMILIES. FAR TOO
OFTEN,
HOWEVER,
WITHIN
THIS
CONSTELLATION OF THE ‘REAL,’ BLACK GAYS
AND LESBIANS WONDER IF WE WILL EVEN BE
IN THE VIEWFINDER WHEN THE FAMILY
PORTRAIT IS TAKEN.