Perverters of Culture — Homocult, Queercore and Public Space (Conclusion)
This is part 6 of the dissertation I wrote for my Masters in art history with the Open University, which I completed in October 2022. It’s also the basis of the PhD I’ll be starting at the end of 2023. This is pretty much exactly as it was when I submitted it, at some point I hope to do some posts/videos talking about the issues it explores in a less academic/more accessible style. I’ve uploaded the bibliography, but unfortunately the Medium formatting doesn’t allow footnotes. If you’d like to see a version with footnotes intact please do get in touch.
The question the dissertation is answering is: “In What Ways Were Homocult’s Interventions Into Public Space A Response To Queer Marginalisation?”
Chapter links:
- Abstract
- Introduction
- Chapter 1: Visibility and Invisibility
- Chapter 2: Queercore and Anti-assimilationism
- Chapter 3: Public Space and Queer Perspectives
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
Conclusion
Through their unauthorised interventions into public space, Homocult revealed erased perspectives that could not be made visible through authorised means. Their work created, or at least made publicly visible, new queer counterpublics by addressing those who had been previously unaddressed and expressed a non-assimilationist queer gaze on both mainstream culture and the dominant lesbian and gay community. Homocult inspired other queer people who were similarly dissatisfied with what they saw as assimilationism, commodification and a focus on the most privileged within many lesbian and gay groups. They upset and angered both straight and queer people who felt their work was offensive or inappropriate for public space and who had been made an unwilling public to their work. Their intentionally provocative style and tongue-in-cheek humour allowed them to become infamous at the time, encouraging discussion in the gay press, both positive and negative.
Homocult responded to queer marginalisation by revealing the hidden cultural defaults of both mainstream cis-het spaces and those created with an assimilationist lesbian and gay ideology. Most spaces that present themselves as neutral in terms of gender identity/sexuality are in fact gendered/sexualised as cisgender and heterosexual, as shown by Nina Held. This gendering/sexualising is invisible to a mainstream public that assumes cisgenderism and heterosexuality as cultural norms. Similarly, spaces defined as queer space risk erasing those who also deviate from hidden cultural defaults in other ways, such as through race or class. This also applies to arts and academic institutions, which will usually default to the invisible cultural norms of cis-het, male, white, middle class and so forth if presented as neutral.
While the assimilationist response to queer marginalisation was to seek inclusion by downplaying their queerness, Homocult responded by using the tools available to them to force intentionally shocking expressions of queerness into the public sphere. These tools were a combination of DIY punk approaches to cultural creation and a street artist’s response to public space. Their use of xerography was instrumental to their ability to occupy space that was not created to be welcoming to queerness and their work’s ability to disperse far from the artist through being copied and shared. This allowed them to reject the commodification of queer identity by creating work and communities outside capitalism. Hennessey warns us that responding to a lack of queer visibility with an image of the wealthy, white, middle-class cis gay consumer maintains the invisibility of queer people who do not fit this image and perpetuates the divisions of class, wealth and power that oppress them and all marginalised people. The commodification of queer sexuality, identity and queer-coded signifiers depoliticises them and reduces them to stylistic trends, repackaging queerness as a fashion statement that poses no threat to cis-het normativity.
Inclusion of queer perspectives, whether in art institutions, mainstream media or public space, is only genuinely liberatory if these perspectives are allowed to stand on their own and not be translated through an institutional default cis-het lense. Sholette speaks of how work created outside of art institutions must be recognised by those institutions without being assimilated into them, and this is especially vital when considering work made by marginalised people. While Homocult’s lack of interest in gaining entry to institutions presents a challenge for research, looking at the ways they have (and have not) been documented provides fruitful insights into their work and their approach to producing and distributing it. This dissertation endeavoures to present their work on its own terms, and with an understanding of the cultural context it emerged from.
The potential ‘double bind’ of queer visibility is particularly challenging to navigate for those with less privilege. Arts and cultural institutions with the power to grant visibility will only do so to those who fit the image they wish to present, and responding to marginalisation through visibility alone risks increasing marginalisation in other ways through assimilation and commodification. Like many queer people, Homocult found ways to navigate this duality even while they were subjected to it by maintaining the anonymity of their members, distributing their work themselves using DIY tactics, selectively participating in exhibitions in art galleries and publishing their book Queer With Class through an independent publisher. These issues have become particularly relevant to transgender people in the last few decades as increased visibility has led to a rise in visible transphobia. The essays and discussions by transgender artists and activists in the 2017 book Trap Door: Trans Cultural Production and the Politics of Visibility tackle these contradictions in the context of transgender visibility, focusing on intersections with race and Glissant’s theory of the right to opacity discussed in chapter one.
There is potential for further research into Queercore art and culture in the UK as this is currently lacking and is at risk of disappearing permanently if not adequately documented. As this period is still within living memory an oral history approach would be appropriate, along with the collection and archival of artefacts. In a time when homo/transphobia and right-wing politics are on the rise, researching work from the past that challenges queer marginalisation becomes vital. While many disagree with Homocult’s aggressive language, use of slurs and attacks on lesbian and gay charities that do not share their politics, they have much to teach contemporary queer artists and activists about ways to respond to marginalisation while resisting assimilation and commodification.
