Transgressions & an activist stance
'Suggestions of a Life Being Lived' at SF Camerawork
Published 09/16/2010
by Sura Wood
http://www.ebar.com/arts/art_article.php?sec=general&article=132If there were any doubt, one look at SF Camerawork's queer-themed show Suggestions of a Life Being Lived confirms that times have indeed changed, at least for some. The exhibition's guest curators, both of whom are under 30 and part of a younger generation, pick up where In a Different Light, Larry Rinder and Nayland Blake's groundbreaking 1995 show of works by radical, fearless artists at the Berkeley Art Museum, left off. The BAM exhibit arrived on the scene during a different era and in a combustible climate laced with a potent cocktail of homophobia and the terror of AIDS. It focused on coming-out narratives of gays and lesbians when assertions of queerness constituted acts of defiance and bravery. Fast-forward to 2010 and a less repressive, closeted context: Suggestions takes queer identity as a given, and with "outness" no longer a pressing issue, moves into the realm of political activism, beyond dominant gay and lesbian culture, and implicitly asks: What's next?
