Date of Award
2026
Document Type
Dissertation - Restricted Access (SIA Only)
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Contemporary Art
Abstract
This dissertation examines how contemporary artists based in Europe and the United States from the late 1960s to the early twenty-first century reconfigured domestic space through the visual iconography of the queer duo, a recurring motif that disrupts the heteronormative couple form. Through analyses of works by David Hockney, Gilbert & George, Robert Mapplethorpe, Sunil Gupta, Félix Gonzalez-Torres, and Elmgreen & Dragset, it argues that domestic interiors function not as neutral sites of privacy but as politically charged spaces where heteronormative ideals of family and coupledom are both reproduced and contested. By situating these artworks within the shifting political terrain shaped by the gay liberation movement, Cold War conservatism, the AIDS crisis, and the later assimilationist turn in gay politics, this dissertation shows how queer artists staged alternative relational forms that unsettle dominant narratives of gay visibility and progress. While some works appear to comply with national and familial norms, they simultaneously encode a latent radicalism that reimagines the home as a site of tension, desire, and queer futurity. Collectively, these artworks articulate new possibilities for intimacy, coexistence, and new ways of queer life beyond the ontological unity of the heterosexual couple.
Recommended Citation
Liu, Siyi, "The Iconography of the Queer Duo in Domestic Space, 1968-2015" (2026). MA in Contemporary Art Dissertations. 11.
https://digitalcommons.sia.edu/ma_con_art/11