Queer

Historically, 'queer' was the slur used against those who were perceived to be or made to feel abnormal. Beginning in the 1980s, this negative speech act was reappropriated and embraced as a badge of honour. While queer draws its politics and affective force from the history of nonnormative, gay, lesbian and bisexual communities, it is not equivalent to these categories nor is it an identity. Artists who identify their practices as queer today call forth utopian and dystopian alternatives to the ordinary, adopt outlaw stances, embrace criminality and opacity, and forge unprecedented kinships and relationships. This is the first anthology to bring together artist's writings and conversations about queer practice, describing and examining the ways in which they have used the concept of queer as a site of political and institutional critique, as a framework to develop new families and histories, as a spur to action and as a basis from which to declare inassimilable difference. Artists and writers include Nayland Blake, Gregg Bordowitz, Leigh Bowery, AA Bronson, AK Burns, Giuseppe Campuzano, Tee Corinne, Barbara DeGenevieve, Dyke Action Machine!, Elmgreen & Dragset, Nicole Eisenman, Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Simon Fujiwara, Malik Gaines, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Gran Fury, Sunil Gupta, Hahn Thi Pham, Harmony Hammond, Sharon Hayes, Hudson, Roberto Jacoby, Derek Jarman, Isaac Julien, Mahmoud Khaled, Zoe Leonard, Lesbian Avengers, Catherine Lord, Ma Liuming, LTTR, Allyson Mitchell, Zanele Muholi, Carlos Motta, Ocana, Helio Oiticica, Catherine Opie, Marlon Riggs, Emily Roysdon, Prem Sahib, Assoto Saint, Tejal Shah, Amy Sillman, Jack Smith, AL Steiner, Wolfgang Tillmans, Toxic Titties, Danh Vo, David Wojnarowicz, Wu Tsang, Yan Xing, Las Yeguas del Apocalipsis, Akram Zaatari and Sergio Zevallos.