The body, a long contested site of identity construction, has been used by historically by queers to convey desire, build affinity and transgress norms. Looking at the fashioned queer body, this capstone takes the form of a proposal for an art exhibition at the Leslie Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art. Seeking to engage with objects, performance and film which approximate, provide proxy for or depart from the body as a site, it explores the social and political quagmire of getting dressed. Comprised of contemporary art that looks at the rupture of legible bodily semiotics, this show wonders what new modes of expression form in their wake. Cruising the archive, what legacies and genealogies do artists engage, which ones will they willingly forget? What does the embodiment of queerness through dress look like in our current historical moment? What do these practices say about the future of explorations of identity through dress? Overall, these works, and their curation, hope to question the traditional modes of identity construction and the supposedly stable categories of gender, sex, sexuality, race and ability. The following white paper takes a multivocal approach to examining the discursive practices, nuanced modes, and slight twists that fashioning has undergone historically in the hands of queers. Through a multifaceted approach, it uses a bevy of forms (drawings, performance script, personal narrative) to refuse a singular neat and linear narrative, mirroring the ways that practices of queer self-fashioning grapple with and complicate dominant narratives and paradigms.
","abstract_html":"<p>The body, a long contested site of identity construction, has been used by historically by queers to convey desire, build affinity and transgress norms. Looking at the fashioned queer body, this capstone takes the form of a proposal for an art exhibition at the Leslie Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art. Seeking to engage with objects, performance and film which approximate, provide proxy for or depart from the body as a site, it explores the social and political quagmire of getting dressed. Comprised of contemporary art that looks at the rupture of legible bodily semiotics, this show wonders what new modes of expression form in their wake. Cruising the archive, what legacies and genealogies do artists engage, which ones will they willingly forget? What does the embodiment of queerness through dress look like in our current historical moment? What do these practices say about the future of explorations of identity through dress? Overall, these works, and their curation, hope to question the traditional modes of identity construction and the supposedly stable categories of gender, sex, sexuality, race and ability. The following white paper takes a multivocal approach to examining the discursive practices, nuanced modes, and slight twists that fashioning has undergone historically in the hands of queers. Through a multifaceted approach, it uses a bevy of forms (drawings, performance script, personal narrative) to refuse a singular neat and linear narrative, mirroring the ways that practices of queer self-fashioning grapple with and complicate dominant narratives and paradigms.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Zimmerman, Callen"],"institution":"The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York","degree_name":"Master of Arts","degree_level":"Master","degree_discipline":"Liberal Studies","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Christopher Schmidt"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2019,"date_issued":"2019-09-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2019-09-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:59:05Z","subjects":["Art Practice","Contemporary Art","Cultural History","Fashion Design","Fiber, Textile, and Weaving Arts","Fine Arts","Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies","Museum Studies","Sculpture","Visual Studies","queer","fashion","curation","Leslie Lohman","identity"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/3349","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Christopher Schmidt"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Zimmerman, Callen"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2019-09-01T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Liberal Studies"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Master"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts"]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Art Practice","Contemporary Art","Cultural History","Fashion Design","Fiber, Textile, and Weaving Arts","Fine Arts","Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies","Museum Studies","Sculpture","Visual Studies","queer","fashion","curation","Leslie Lohman","identity"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/3349"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["The body, a long contested site of identity construction, has been used by historically by queers to convey desire, build affinity and transgress norms. Looking at the fashioned queer body, this capstone takes the form of a proposal for an art exhibition at the Leslie Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art. Seeking to engage with objects, performance and film which approximate, provide proxy for or depart from the body as a site, it explores the social and political quagmire of getting dressed. Comprised of contemporary art that looks at the rupture of legible bodily semiotics, this show wonders what new modes of expression form in their wake. Cruising the archive, what legacies and genealogies do artists engage, which ones will they willingly forget? What does the embodiment of queerness through dress look like in our current historical moment? What do these practices say about the future of explorations of identity through dress? Overall, these works, and their curation, hope to question the traditional modes of identity construction and the supposedly stable categories of gender, sex, sexuality, race and ability. The following white paper takes a multivocal approach to examining the discursive practices, nuanced modes, and slight twists that fashioning has undergone historically in the hands of queers. Through a multifaceted approach, it uses a bevy of forms (drawings, performance script, personal narrative) to refuse a singular neat and linear narrative, mirroring the ways that practices of queer self-fashioning grapple with and complicate dominant narratives and paradigms.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Getting Located: Queer Semiotics in Dress"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Christopher Schmidt"],"dc:creator":["Zimmerman, Callen"],"dc:date.available":["2019-09-01T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["The body, a long contested site of identity construction, has been used by historically by queers to convey desire, build affinity and transgress norms. Looking at the fashioned queer body, this capstone takes the form of a proposal for an art exhibition at the Leslie Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art. Seeking to engage with objects, performance and film which approximate, provide proxy for or depart from the body as a site, it explores the social and political quagmire of getting dressed. Comprised of contemporary art that looks at the rupture of legible bodily semiotics, this show wonders what new modes of expression form in their wake. Cruising the archive, what legacies and genealogies do artists engage, which ones will they willingly forget? What does the embodiment of queerness through dress look like in our current historical moment? What do these practices say about the future of explorations of identity through dress? Overall, these works, and their curation, hope to question the traditional modes of identity construction and the supposedly stable categories of gender, sex, sexuality, race and ability. The following white paper takes a multivocal approach to examining the discursive practices, nuanced modes, and slight twists that fashioning has undergone historically in the hands of queers. Through a multifaceted approach, it uses a bevy of forms (drawings, performance script, personal narrative) to refuse a singular neat and linear narrative, mirroring the ways that practices of queer self-fashioning grapple with and complicate dominant narratives and paradigms.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/3349"],"dc:subject":["Art Practice","Contemporary Art","Cultural History","Fashion Design","Fiber, Textile, and Weaving Arts","Fine Arts","Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies","Museum Studies","Sculpture","Visual Studies","queer","fashion","curation","Leslie Lohman","identity"],"dc:title":["Getting Located: Queer Semiotics in Dress"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Liberal Studies"],"thesis:degree_level":["Master"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Arts"],"thesis:institution_name":["The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:59:05Z"}