Queering the Traditional Cabinet of Curiosities: LGBTQ Art and Artifacts
Left: Assorted matchbooks containing paper and wooden matches, ca. late 1970s–1980s; various donors. Right: Portrait of Ambi Sextrous, Doris Fish (Australia, 1952–1991), acrylic on canvas, 16" x 19", 1978; donated by Ms. Bob Davis. Both in the Art and Artifacts Collection (GLBT-ART), GLBT Historical Society.
Queering the Traditional Cabinet of Curiosities:
LGBTQ Art and Artifacts
by Nalini Elias and Ramón Silvestre
In the sixteenth century, rulers, nobles, scientists and prosperous merchants frequently maintained a Wunderkammer, or “cabinet of curiosities,” in which they stored and exhibited antiques, works of art, and natural, scientific and exotic remnants tending to the rare, eclectic and esoteric. In a new online exhibition that we unveiled on July 26, Queeriosities: Treasures From the Art and Artifacts Collection, we’ve swung open the doors of our very own cabinet of curiosities.
The GLBT Historical Society’s Art and Artifacts Collection includes a diverse range of two-dimensional and three-dimensional objects, including paper materials such as drawings and sketches, architectural plans, and banners; metal objects such as buttons, plaques, and badges; three-dimensional artifacts such as sculptures, paintings, historic business signs, and theatrical props; and textiles, such as costumes, uniforms, and sashes
Co-curators Nalini Elias, director of exhibitions and museum experience, and Ramón Silvestre, museum registrar and curatorial specialist, selected 19 objects to populate our virtual cabinet of curiosities in the exhibition. We asked Ramón and Nalini to share their personal thoughts about the exhibition, and each elaborated at length on an object that is meaningful to them.
“This portrait exists in a kind of dialectic: it’s both achievement and loss, triumph and tragedy, joy and despair, resilience and defeat.”
Nalini Elias: I first learned about “cabinets of curiosities” when I was an art history student in college, and they always felt elitist, since only rich, influential and white (usually also straight) men had access to the best, most exotic objects in the universe. It seemed as though the main reason for exhibiting these priceless curiosities was to display one’s material wealth to a small, rarified group of people. So when we developed the concept of this exhibition, we deliberately queered the concept of the traditional cabinet of curiosities. Not only are we selecting materials that have been collected by a much more diverse group of LGBTQ people, we’ve included a lot of materials that have no intrinsic value. The exhibition includes poppers, for instance! And we are also sharing these objects—and their stories— with everyone who has internet access.
The portrait of drag performer Ambi Sextrous by the artist Doris Fish (1952–1991) is one of my favorites in this exhibition. I am a fan of extremely colorful paintings and playful themes, especially if they include pastel and neon colors as saturated as they are in this acrylic! I felt happy when I first saw this flamboyant, confident drag queen in radiant makeup and decorated with fascinating accessories, looking as dreamy and stimulating as the vivid landscape behind her. I thought to myself: There is no sadness whatsoever in this painting, only joy.
After learning a bit more about who both Ambi Sextrous and Doris Fish were, and the fact that they were performers living in the city and following their dreams until their lives were taken by AIDS, then this piece took on a more poignant meaning for me. Now it’s a reminder of the deeply important role that art and artists played during the 1980s when San Francisco’s queer nightlife and art scene were decimated by the AIDS crisis. For both individuals an communities, art is truly a medium for expression and survival. I think about the experiences, contributions and accomplishments that Ambi Sextrous and Doris Fish were robbed of by the AIDS pandemic, and lament the loss to LGBTQ history, arts and culture. So for me, this portrait exists in a kind of dialectic: it’s both achievement and loss, triumph and tragedy, joy and despair, resilience and defeat. I have a more ambivalent attitude toward the image—and it is more meaningful.
“These matchbooks remind me of dinner dates with former romantic liaisons, or just memorable evenings with queer friends and family.”
Ramón Silvestre: Having worked in more traditional archaeological and ethnographic collections in the past, the society’s Art and Artifacts Collection is the most intriguing collection I’ve worked with in my entire career. Believe me when I say that there’s never a dull moment with this collection. I enjoy the fact that these objects are not necessarily the types of materials that traditional institutions would want to collect, or find valuable. There’s something subversive about finding value in objects that might otherwise have landed in the garbage.
My favorite object in this exhibition is the assortment of matches from LGBTQ establishments. I spent my share of time in gay dance bars and clubs in the 1980s and 1990s in New York and San Francisco. These matchbooks bring up so many interesting memories of places and people. In an era before cell phones and dating apps, you’d exchange numbers with someone on whatever scrap of paper was at hand—as often as not, on the cover of a packet of paper matches that you grabbed from the bar—and hope that the other guy would call back! These matchbooks remind me of dinner dates with former romantic liaisons, or just memorable evenings with queer friends and family.
Nalini Elias is director of exhibitions and museum experience at the GLBT Historical Society. She collaborates with community curators to create both online and museum exhibitions, and she also directs the museum department. She has worked for various cultural organizations including the Museum of Latin American Art, de Young Museum, Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, and Fraenkel Gallery.
Ramón Silvestre is museum registrar and curatorial specialist at the GLBT Historical Society. He is an expert in material culture studies. He previously was a Visiting Fellow at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, and has published in many national and international professional journals, including The Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press.