Responding to queer desire through various forms of art
About
Welcome to the pleasurehome, an online exhibition responding to queer desire, prompted by Catherine Opie’s 1993 photograph Self-Portrait/Cutting. Carved on the artist’s back is a vision of home, made in a childish scrawl, illustrating two women, hand in hand, in front of a house, under a timid sun. Oscillating between desire and violence, the image establishes a politics of pleasure that guides the presentation of four new artworks, released in sequence over a four-month span.
One by one, each artist thoughtfully weaves their own experience of queerness into various forms (video, photography, painting, and digital arts), resulting in a textured exploration of home. Beginning in January 2022, viewers will have the opportunity to view each work on a month-by-month basis through an accessible online portal, converging at the hearth of queer home through its many extensions and interpretations.
We look forward to having you over.
pleasurehome: desiring queer space is curated by Logan Williams and is presented in conjunction with the Jackman Humanities Institute’s 2021-2022 research theme, Pleasure.
Schedule
John Greyson - International Dawn Chorus Day
In Greyson’s film, queerness rings through— temporary homes built out of necessity for belonging—to make sense of what is beyond the front door, longing for community.
Evan Sproat
Sproat stages environments that encourage curiosity and play, highlighting the mechanistic extensions of gender conformity within the filmic frame of a staged scene.
Kaeten Bonli
Bonli patches together a scene from time past: his grandmother’s house is the scene in which he places his queer body to confront the generations-long anxieties surrounding the queer body.
Shawné Michaelain Holloway
Holloway unpacks a video game in which she has always been fascinated, and questions whether queer desire is ever really attainable.
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