Queer Subversions
Romance
Redefined
Perfect Lovers (Letter)
Cuban born, American artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres (1957-1996) is best known for his ready-made sculptures that deal with heavy subjects while avoiding censorship due to their subtle and subversive nature. During the last decade of his life, the US was grappling with the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Gonzalez-Torres used his work to not only advocate for gay men that were being ravaged by the disease, but also as a way to process his own feelings of fear,
Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Perfect Lovers Letter, 1988
loss, and love, with his partner, Ross Laycock, who was diagnosed with HIV in 1988, and passed away in 1991.
One of his more famous works, Perfect Lovers (1988-1991), is an installation piece of two identical store bought, battery powered clocks perfectly synchronized, placed directly beside one another so that their edges are touching. The ticking of the clocks symbolizes Gonzalez-Torres and Laycocks’s heart beats with the awareness that one will stop ticking before the other as the battery powered clocks die. Perfect Lovers can be read as representing the “anxiety [that] comes from the fact of never knowing how long the process of misalignment and dying will last” (Adair Rounthwaite, “Split witness: Metaphorical extensions of life in the art of Felix Gonzalez-Torres," 41). Although this piece was created with their relationship in mind, this sentiment was widely shared throughout the gay community as thousands were put in the position of perpetual grief as the death count rose while also having to preemptively grieve their own impending death (Peter Staley in How to Survive a Plague 01:30:28)
However, this piece was materialized after this letter that Gonzalez-Torres sent from LA to Laycock in Toronto after his diagnosis to comfort his lover. This artifact that adds previously unknown context to one of his most famous works was uncovered in Gonzalez-Torres’s 2016 monograph published by Andrea Rosen Gallery in New York. Gonzalez-Torres’s letter to Laycock counteracts this mass fear of unknown time alive and instead poetically reclaimed the beauty of time and what it has given them. His letter is gentle and romantic, claiming, “[w]e are synchronized, now and forever” with a subtle homage to their same-sex relationship scribbled in the corner: a simplistic drawing of the clocks in Perfect Lovers, highlighting their identical appearance and intimate proximity. The hypersexualization of the AIDS epidemic worked to create a narrative of sexual deviancy that helped justify the loss of lives, but this letter is proof of the devoted lovers that were ripped apart by the disease.
Essex Hemphill, "American Wedding", 1992
click the photo for access to the full poem!
American Wedding
“American Wedding" is a poem written by gay, Black poet Essex Hemphill. He released "American Wedding" in 1992 as a part of his collection called Ceremonies. Hemphill's work centers the gay African-American community, addressing topics such as race, identity, sexuality, HIV/AIDS, and family. In "American Wedding", Hemphill speaks in a heartfelt tone to a lover, using declarations such as “we need each other critically,” “…I vow to you. I give you my heart…” He mentions the "horsemen of terror" and how they are too busy wreaking havoc to pay attention to them. The observers of Hemphill’s romantic relationship expect him and his lover to cease their relationship in time of hardship, but Hemphill asserts that the existence of their love only makes them stronger. The poem displays that tender love can prevail under scrutiny. Created during the HIV/AIDS crisis, Hemphill advocates for gay marriage rights and captures the
tenderness that is typically glossed over in the gay, African-American community. Hemphill died in 1995 from AIDS complications, and “American Wedding” has been revered as a declaration of heartfelt social justice.
My Lover is a Woman
“My Lover is a Woman” is a poem written by Pat Parker. It was written in 1976. The poem was published in 1977 in her book Movement in Black. Pat Parker was a poet, activist, and artist born in 1944 and passed away in 1989. A lot of her work drew on her experiences of being a lesbian, just like the poem “My Lover is a Woman”. Parker was previously married to two men before coming out as a lesbian later in life. The poem talks about the struggle of her identity as a black person in love with a white woman.One of the lines that directly relates to this is this This poem is a perfect example showing how someone can describe their experience of dealing with figuring out who they are in a world where two things are against them (their sexuality and the color of their skin). This poem was written during a time where sodomy laws were still in place, so that added context only adds to depth and meaning of the poem. Most of the poem starts off by
Pat Parker, "My lover is a woman", 1989
click on the photo for access to the full poem!
describing a positive feature of her lover. For example “my lover’s eyes are blue and when she looks at me i float in a warm lake feel my muscles go weak with want feel good feel safe” (Pat Parker, “My Lover Is a Woman”). From there she contrasts the positive with something negative. She writes “then i never think of the blue eyes that have glared at me moved three stools away from me in a bar.”
The Half of It
Directed by Alice Wu, an American filmmaker known for focusing on Chinese-American lesbian characters, The Half of It (2020) explores the story of Ellie Chu, a queer teenager growing up in a small, heavily Christian town, while running a business at school writing her peers’ papers for them in exchange for money. When Paul, a
himbo football player whom Ellie has never met asks for help writing a love letter to popular, girlfriend of the quarterback and daughter of the pastor Aster Flores, who Ellie also happens to have a secret crush on, Paul and Ellie get inexplicably close. At the same time, Ellie and Aster form a bond through the letters “Paul” is writing. When the truth comes out about both Ellie’s sexuality and the nature of the letters, she faces the scrutiny of Paul’s religious beliefs as well as the intense feelings her and Aster share.
After attempting to kiss Ellie, but getting rejected, Paul is taken aback, saying “You don’t want me to kiss you?” (1:19:45). The following moment Aster shows up, and Paul comes to the conclusion that she actually likes Aster. In his confusion, Paul says “It’s a sin…you’re going to Hell” (1:20:30). Although outwardly homophobic, it feels as though Paul’s words come from a place of ignorance- as if he doesn’t know any better. It’s as if he is unsure how it’s possible for someone to be gay, given his strict religious upbringing, and he knows no world in which a gay person won’t be condemned. Perhaps Paul has never even questioned if the idea that gay people are bad is true, because he has been given no reason to believe otherwise. While showcasing the role that Christianity has played in perpetuating homophobia, The Half of It also exemplifies how one can subvert from what they have been taught, as well as showing through Ellie’s feelings toward Aster that it queer people do exist within Christian spaces.