Tyler Matthew Oyer: Cultivating Conviction

Radical Art Theory Nights

Tyler Matthew Oyer: Cultivating Conviction

A conversation and workshop on queer desires and actions

June 28, 2016
7:00 – 8:30 PM
Southern Exposure
Limited to 15 participants, RSVP here

Over the course of the evening, we will investigate queerness through personal, discursive, and embodied inquiries. In Part 1, Queer as Action, each person will have an uninterrupted opportunity to share their responses and thoughts to the question listed below. Excerpts will be read aloud from Maggie Nelson’s The Argonauts, José Esteban Muñoz’s Cruising Utopia, and Kate Thomas’ “What Time We Kiss.” Part 2, Cultivating Conviction, will consist of a series of exercises seeking to activate the body, engage the voice, and focus the mind. Individual and collective performance material will be generated through dancing, vocalizing, meditating and writing. In Part 3, we will have the opportunity to reflect on the evening’s events.

Prepare responses and thoughts on the following:

  • Do you have a queer family? Do you consciously name it? How does language play a role in how you structure this family – do you explicitly name roles, responsibilities, and commitments, or is it more informal or implied? Is there a familial relationship or situation that you do not have that you imagine or crave?
  • How do you actively extend (or wish to extend) intense care (perhaps even ethics) into a community? Is it through a creative practice? An organization? Is this something you think about? Do you find it hard to negotiate care with a primary partner and care amongst a community? Or are they complementary?
  • How do you relate to the following statement: Queerness is a performative because it is not simply a being but a doing for and toward the future.

Required Reading (participants will receive pdfs of these texts after RSVPing):

  • José Esteban Muñoz, “Introduction,” Cruising Utopia, New York University Press, 2009
  • Kate Thomas, “What Time We Kiss,” in A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies: Queer Temporalities, ed. Elizabeth Freeman, Duke University Press, 2007

Called an "interdisciplinary gospel immortalist" by Kembra Pfahler of the Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black, Tyler Matthew Oyer is an artist, writer, and organizer based in Los Angeles. Through affect, relation, staging and subject matter, his work engages the radical queer imagination in order to illustrate imagined and re-imagined sociopolitical realities. He has presented work at MoMA PS1, REDCAT, dOCUMENTA (13), Hammer Museum, Kunstnernes Hus Oslo, Art Basel Miami Beach, Bergen Kunstall, Rogaland Kunstsenter, The Royal Vauxhall Tavern, High Desert Test Sites, Highways Performance Space, Human Resources LA and the Orange County Museum of Art. He has written works of performance including GONE FOR GOLD, Shimmy Shake Earthquake, and 100 Years of Noise: Beyoncé is ready to receive you now. Oyer is the founder of tir journal, an online platform for queer, feminist, and underrepresented voices. He received an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in 2012. He is currently working on his first movie, Conquest of the Universe or When Queens Collide.

Radical Art Theory Tuesdays hosts conversations about art theory, art history, or research-based art practices that reflect on narratives of the historically marginalized. Visiting writers, curators, and artists contend with both current and canonized concerns, critically engage with texts, and lead open community discussions. The series makes art theory and art history relevant, necessary, and accessible.

Radical Art Theory Tuesdays is facilitated and organized by C.A. Greenlee in partnership with Southern Exposure’s Artists in Education program.