You cannot be serious!: Flirtation and queer cultural acts

The project explores the flirtatious relationship to so-called 'serious' culture evident in selected examples of recent queer visual art, film and performance. The focus upon queer sexuality and flirtatious forms of cultural attention aims to newly consider the playful approaches to serious subject matter and earnest expression adopted by some contemporary queer work. The point is to go beyond views of queer art and performance as either unserious triviality or camp parody in favour of an appreciation of the multiple and complex ways in which the serious and soberly committed are addressed in contemporary queer cultural production.