Thinking about social categories of difference and the power structures that inform/impact them (past and present), you will need to select a concept (listed below) and contemporary visual artist (please, no musicians, writers, etc.) that engages with your thematic selection in their practice. After selecting both your theme and artist, you will need to select 2-3 artworks that you feel best exemplifies/contests/complicates your chosen concept.
A Substantial Creative Project (Art, Creative Writing, Performance, etc.): This will need to be accompanied by a 4-5 page (double-spaced) critical paper that relates the project back to the concept/artist of your choice (if you elect to go with this option, choosing an artist to inform the project alone will suffice).
Thematic Choices:
Sex/Gender Binaries
Emergence of “Normativity”
Leather, BDSM, and Power
Feminism, Separatism, and Alternative Communities
Materiality of the Body
Gendered Labor
Queer Politics and the Policing of “Deviant” Bodies/Sexuality
Cyberidentities (Sexual/Gendered)
Institutional Repression/Representation
Performativity, Drag, and Gender Identity
Intersectionality (Race/Class/Gender/Place/Sexuality)
Stereotypes and Cultural Representation/Visibility
Regardless of your choice, your final assignment on the visualization of difference will need to utilize and EXPAND ON the concept of your choice, discussing not only HOW it is exemplified in the context of the artist/work that you have selected, but also how it engages with the “cultural order” of difference.
you may elect to include reference photos if appropriate, however, if you are not specifically referencing any artworks, listing the artist that helped informed your project will suffice. BOTH options will require that you use at LEAST 3-4 academic/scholarly sources. Please note that you are more than welcome to use ANY of the articles/texts we’ve read in class or any other relevant scholarly peer-reviewed sources.
