“Another kind of Names Project”
The past two decades have seen significant social and political gains made by and for sexual minorities in the United States; the same time period has also seen virulent and overt homophobia. Often these two phenomena go together. Newly visible queer communities become scapegoats in campaigns by social conservatives, while some self-described moderates and progressives perpetuate a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, stifling articulation of minority sexual identities.
Despite the rhetorics of avant-gardism, the art world often follows the broader culture. Museums, publishers, colleges, and universities today reflect recent trends toward both frank homophobia and more subtle suppressions of minority sexual identity. Opposition to the expression of queer identities at state-sponsored educational institutions often takes on the teminology of political initiatives against civil rights for sexual minotirites. Scholars and artists in academe should also be concerned about institutions cloaking a refusal to engage questions of sexuality in the terminology of scholarship, identifying lesbian, gay, and even queer identities as so historically specific to their moment of first academic enunciation that these concepts are seen as passé in reference to contemporary art and anachronistic when applied to artists whose careers began more than twenty years ago. Museums in particular have been quick to seize on some prominent artists’ refusal to self-identify as part of a sexual minority as justification to censor any discussion of their work in that context.
This panel breaks the silence and names names. Papers are solicited from artists, art historians, and critics concerning recent, specific, documentable instances of overt homophobia and strategies to silence discussion of sexual identity by schools, museums, galleries, and other art institutions, and in recent publications. Papers engaging these issues in a manner other than the case study -- by addressing the susceptibility of academic discourses to homophobic appropriation, perhaps, or by comparing the trajectory of feminist issues and identity in the art world, for example -- are also welcomed. If the homophobic imperatives within the contemporary art world are as strong as some believe, then participation in this panel entails both responsibility and risk. Presenters are responsible for meeting rigorous standards of documentation; at the same time, the panel organizers are open to suggestions concerning mitigation of risk for potential participants at vulnerable points in their careers.
Please send proposals by July 1, 2005, to Paul Jaskot, Chair, Department of Art, DePaul University, 1150 W. Fullerton Ave., Chicago, IL 60614-2204 (pjaskot@depaul.edu) and to Chris Reed, Chair, Art Department, Lake Forest College, 555 N. Sheridan Rd., Lake Forest, IL 60045 (reed@lakeforest.edu).
The Caucus is also sponsoring “Classical antiquity and the expression of queer desires” which is chaired by Peter Holliday. The call for participation appeared in the January newsletter and also appears in the general call issued in February by CAA. www.collegeart.org
“James Duesing: Animation” is now available from Facets Multimedia (www.facets.org). It brings together five animations produced over the past 20 years, all digitally remastered from original film and video sources, with essays by Patricia Thompson and Linda Dubler.
Harmony Hammond has launched her new website harmonyhammond.com which includes archives of work and writings from the 1970s to the present, along with current work and exhibitions.
Delmas Howe and Harmony Hammond have been invited to be co-grand marshalls for 2005 Albuquerque Pride. In addition to riding in the parade (on horseback? on motorcycles? in a convertible?), they will both have 3-day exhibitions in the Fine Arts Building of the State Fair Grounds. There will also be an uncensored art show and a juried community-based exhibition.
Helen Langa, Associate Professor (American and Contemporary Art History, and Women’s and Gender Studies) at American University, was elected in October 2004 to serve a three-year term as At-Large representative on the Board of Directors of the Southeastern College Art Conference (SECAC). She is also the book review editor for the SECAC review, the conference’s annual journal.
This year’s Publishing Triangle Leadership Award goes to the Lesbian Herstory Archives, the largest and oldest lesbian archive in the world. Founded in the mid-1970s by a group of women who were concerned about the failure of mainstream publishers, libraries, and research institutions to value lesbian culture, this archive houses more than 20,000 books, along with thousands of photographs, magazines, files, film and video footage, and other materials. Its headquarters are in Brooklyn, New York. (from the Publishing Triangle’s press release)
The Leslie-Lohman Gay Art Foundation’s “Museum of Queer Visual Culture” as presented at InterseXions is now online at www.leslielohman.org/queermuseum.htm
The winning design in the competition for the National AIDS Memorial in San Francisco is by New York architects Jeanette Kim and Chloe Town. cf. The architect’s newspaper, Apr. 6, 2005, p. 6.
The Schwulesmuseum in Berlin will inaugurate a permanent collection with grants from the Berlin lottery and the estate of art historian Christian Adolf Isermeyer. cf. Têtu, janvier 2005, p. 56
Robert Summers was quoted in The New York times on February 5 on the controversy about gunplay during Ron Athey’s performance class at UCLA. He also appeared on the Fox News show “Homeland.”
Pittsburgh renamed its Seventh Street Bridge after Andy Warhol on 18 March 2005. The bridge leads from downtown toward the Andy Warhol Museum. cf. Philadelphia gay news, Mar. 25-31, 2005, p. 16, 21
Jonathan Weinberg’s new book Male desire: the homoerotic in American art is about to be published by Abrams (Jonathan had an advance copy in hand in early April). We hope to have a review in the next issue. Meanwhile, Jonathan will be talking and signing copies in Philadelphia (May 11, Fleisher Art Memorial), New York (June 17, B&N Chelsea), Los Angeles (June 19, LACMA and June 20, A Different Light), New York (June 23, Mary Ryan Gallery), Washington (July 14, Lambda Rising), and Provincetown (July 19, P-town Arts Association). The book got a half-page spread in the April issue of Gay times (London).
Greg Jordan, interior designer, died in New York on April 20th. Obituary in New York blade, Apr. 29, 2005.
Jonathan Thomas, sculptor and partner of playwright Edward Albee, died on May 2nd at home in New York, aged 59. Obituary in New York times, May 6, 2005.