This entry is part of the pilot project Do It Yourself! Queering the Archive. For more information and general questions about the project, I refer you to the introduction page.
Case 4: To Queer Or Not To Queer?
“For their 1993 installation ‘Couples’, A.P. Komen and Karen Murphy tapped four car telephone conversations and combined them with evocative images reminiscent of home video.” This installation is an example of artwork where the focus of the work is not explicitly queer. In this installation Komen and Murphy are concerned with topics of everyday life, public/private and communication, which is reflected in the subject coding of the work. However, in this installation a conversation between a gay man and his mother is included, and with that this work is possibly related to queerness. The work currently is not coded with any keywords. The focus of this example is how to deal with queer content in a work whose primary subject is not explicitly queer related.
Discussion Prompts:
How should works that feature queer subjects/voices but are not primarily about queerness, be described? What are the limits of keywording in such cases? How do we deal with queer related work that isn’t made by queer artists? What keywords (1-3 words) would you use to describe this work?
For any comments, questions or concerns that you would rather discuss privately, you can reach me at clairevandenbroek@li-ma.nl
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