PROJECT HISTORY & BACKGROUND
In the 1970s, Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro examined what domesticity would look like if it was only defined by women. The exploration resulted in Womanhouse, an exhibition, suite of performances, and a documentary. Similar conversations and questionings are currently happening within the LGBTQ community, fostered by organizations the LGBTQ Center.
For this project, VAE ad the LGBTQ Center coordinated conversations with four, diverse groups within the Center: Transgender Initiative, Youth Leadership Team, Black Queer Literary Club, and SAGE Raleigh to define queer domestic life. The physical manifestation of these conversations will be a four-room, 700sqft house built in the middle of VAE’s main gallery. Each group will use their unique definition of “queer domesticity” to build out one room of the house, turning it into a queer home.
Throughout the run of this project, programming will initiate and foster inter-community conversations about domesticity, diversity, and respect within the queer community, while public events welcome everyone in a celebration of the queer community.
The project is guest curated by Erica Cardwell who has selected artists Alexandria Smith, Lisette Oblitas-Cruz, and Chitra Ganesh to exhibit their works in the rooms of this queer home. Each artist’s work brings their own queer identity and personal understanding of queer domesticity into the environment.
