Performing queer loneliness in Art AIDS America (2015–17) and Queer British Art (2017)

Abstract

This article discusses issues of racial marginalisation within two significant museum exhibitions, Art AIDS America (2015–17) and Queer British Art (2017). Specifically, the study centres on the responsive work of two young artists, Kia LaBeija and Travis Alabanza, who perform feelings of alienation to protest against the under-representation of queer and trans artists of colour in both museum exhibitions. Through an affective analysis of their artistic embodiment mobilising emotions of loneliness, I argue that such artistic expressions of queer loneliness, in relation to the excluding effects of the two museum exhibitions, are productive acts. They contribute to the building of emotional resilience and the recognition of intersectional communities.