What are the archives of gay and lesbian leather histories, and how have contemporary artists mined these archives to create a queer politics of the present? This book sheds light on an area long ignored by traditional art history and LGBTQ studies, examining the legacies of the visual and material cultures of US leather communities. It discusses the work of contemporary artists such as Patrick Staff, Dean Sameshima, Monica Majoli, AK Burns and AL Steiner, and the artist collective Die Kränken, showing how archival histories and contemporary artistic projects might be applied in a broader analysis of LGBTQ culture and norms. Hanky codes, blurry photographs of Tom of Finland drawings, a pin sash weighted down with divergent histories – these become touchstones for writing leather histories.
Table of Content
List of plates
List of figures
Acknowledgements
1 Introduction: bound together
2 The work of the master’s hand
3 How to talk about Tom
4 Yellow, or reading archives diagonally
5 Numbers
6 ‘Clubs that don’t exist anymore’
7 Attached to history
8 ‘Deep fist at the Modern’
9 Conclusion: surrogates, envelopes
Select bibliography
Index
About the author
Amelia Jones is Robert A. Day Professor of Art and Design and Vice Dean of Critical Studies at the Roski School of Art and Design, University of Southern California
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