Queer Space
by Anthony Pellino, ASID

Can gay space appear distinct from other spaces? Can a space be gay in the absence of gay people? Can gay art be discerned from non-gay art if the content is not explicit? In considering an artistic concept for designing the new Leslie/Lohman space at 26 Wooster St. the primary question becomes: can one express gay-ness through a spatial design?

Perhaps members of all populations within a larger community develop specific signals which inform each other that they share an identity. Within the gay community such symbols have historically needed to adapt the secondary characteristic of leaving the mainstream population uninformed. The symbols themselves have ostensibly fit in with what might be described as typical to anyone not initiated but through subtle adaptations become immediately readable to other gay people. The position of a baseball cap’s visor alone may be the only gesture which announces that one is a woman who loves other women.

The ambition for the new Leslie/Lohman Gallery is to develop a design in response to the questions raised above. The founders and staff have been engaged in dialogue which is based on this inquiry and on the practical questions which must be addressed as well.

The new space will be divided into three main zones. The first is the main gallery, which consists of a large open space nearly square in plan. The second area opens off the first and is analogous to a state’s panhandle. This will function at almost a domestic scale and house the working activities for curating shows. The last zone will be hidden from public view and mainly serve to store artworks.

The turning point between a solution which organizes the new space practically and one which possesses a conceptual foundation occurred in viewing a series of late career paintings by Salvador Dali currently on exhibit in Philadelphia. Paintings such as The Endless Enigma attempt to destabilize the notion of pictorial subject by interlocking several figural elements which advance and recede depending on the viewer’s focus, forming different primary images. In much the same way a gay man may read the length of someone’s sideburns as a sign of common sexual orientation while his tailored suit informs him about professional status.

The design of the new gallery is in its early stages and will certainly develop over the course of the next few months. The founders’ and staff’s intention to create an open space with flexible partitioning has provided an opportunity to develop the new exhibit surfaces with their own queerness. While the gallery will primarily permit an unobstructed sweep of the viewer’s gaze, it will adapt to varying needs with new walls and partitions capable of pivoting, unfolding or shifting as needed. Unless called upon to exhibit their kinesthetic qualities however, they will sit unassumingly against the perimeter of the gallery, their special qualities apparent only to those who choose to perceive them.