Cabinet Of Queeriosities

Cabinet of Queeriosities presents art from the Tang Teaching Museum collection using a queer theory lens to initiate a dialogue about what it means to “queer the collection.” The artworks were selected around six pillars of queer experience: joy, resistance, pain, sexuality, privacy, and community, but in the spirit of queerness, many of the artworks in the show speak to multiple of these experiences simultaneously. The exhibition takes the form of miniature re-creations of each artwork, installed in a bureau in the Tang Atrium. Visitors can rearrange these tiny artworks and interact with an exhibition journal, a library, and take away free safer sex supplies and other resources. As a whole, the project challenges conventional museum practices and the historical exclusion of queer people and queer art from the art historical canon. Cabinet of Queeriosities is curated by Roman Cohen ’22, the 2021–2022 Eleanor Linder Winter ’43 Endowed Intern, and is supported by the Friends of the Tang and the Carter-Rodriguez Fund for Student-Curated Programs. This exhibition is the capstone project of Cohen’s internship, a yearlong opportunity to introduce a student to post-graduate life by providing academic and practical experience in one or more areas of the Tang over the course of their senior year.