How an artwork of Robert Rauschenberg embodies his queer tendencies

Tutorial Summary

1. identity construction and deconstruction

· identity deconstruction (erasing the gay identity by erasing the boundaries between genders - queer theory) (group level or society level)

· the queered vision deconstructs sexual boundaries and sexual identities: unpack, challenge and blur the used labels — like a rebellion, rebels against all the so-called right things (i.e. challenge the stereotypes of ‘appropriation’ ‘order’ and ‘morality’) (Oppose all that is considered right and revered, show all that is demeaned, and try to blur the line between what is revered and what is demeaned)

1 the division between the public and the domestic: the use of domestic material to create art

2 the division between male and female (i.e. the division between homosexual and heterosexual, as gay men were always viewed as females): combine the manly art with so-called feminine stuffs (the use of decorative materials and fabrics))

3 the division between high art and daily life (i.e. high and low, different classes): include those materials like fingernail polish, toothpaste, quilt, sheet and pillow that were historically excluded from the high art canon ; attached the bed to the wall, inverted the method of rolling the canvas onto the studio floor

· queer itself is to remove the labels attached to sex and sexuality, but our queered perspective has been extended, that is, not only to remove the meaning of gender, but the meaning of gender as part of the right and social rules. The purpose is to remove the meaning of all social rules

· this rebellion against morality can be linked to the post-war social attitudes and atmosphere

· identity construction (affirming the gay identity) (individual level )

· homosexual aesthetic: codes that directly allude to his gay identity

· the use of iconographic emblems of a repressed sexuality: (*give examples here) A homosexual text is shaped intermittently through these symbols. This is not a continuous homosexual text, meaning that there may be no direct connection between these symbols, all of which are fragmented, because a coherent homosexuality and homosexual identity did not exist in that era itself.

· Abstract Expressionism is an inherently autobiographical style: Rauschenberg has developed this dimension through the application of figurative collage elements within the framework of an abstract style of painting, rendering it even more personal, more particular, and sometimes almost embarrassingly private. (to reveal his story, his past, and his identity)

2. public space / private space distinction

· the post-war modernism was driven by a rejection of mass culture, and the fear that the mass culture would threaten the formality as well as elitism of the high culture

· Intrusion of private space into public space: the use of domestic material to create high art + High art works made of domestic materials are displayed in public areas like galleries.

· Femininity's intrusion into the male domain: domestic materials and domestic aesthetic of craft could be viewed as the representation of women as women were domestic labour at that time

· Intrusion of frivolity into morality: render the serious, high moral ground of a functionalist aesthetic impure by injecting a domestic aesthetic of craft and frivolity