Paper short abstract:

This paper explores artistic making in queer communities living in Thirdspace (Soja 1996), showing how many marginalized groups constitute authentic experiences. In so doing, they imagine how craft repurposes both materiality and environment towards new relationality.

Paper long abstract:

This paper is an avenue of exploring materiality of space, through an in-depth look at authentic experiences in lived community. I will focus on two related insights: I consider the way that queer people are connected to marginalization and thirdspace; and second, I further explore queer artists as uniquely able to express these two elements. In this context I additionally analyze the work of: Felix Gonzales-Torres' “Untitled: A Portrait of Ross in LA”. This project pulls from critical spatial theory and queer theory to think about making. Critical spatial theory is about rethinking one’s participation in the spaces that exist in everyday life. Specifically, critical spatial theory is an interdisciplinary theory that pulls on ideas of space and the active participation in common societal frameworks surrounding the entanglement of agency of typically urban settings. This paper will expand the critical spatial theory to think about space and place more broadly to allow for an understanding of authentic lived experience inside of Edward Soja’s idea of “thirdspace” or spaces that exist as uniquely subjective and lived within. The queer theory aspect looks at individuals who have been relegated to the margins because of some deviation from traditional types of sexuality and gender expression. Queerness is not just about ostracism from the societal order but an attempt toward the complete annihilation of identities from the traditional social order. This study looks at queer art through the lens of queer theory to express the ephemeral nature of this type of expression.