An exploration of queerness in visual and material culture with regard to the specific conditions of the making and experience of art in different cultural, sociopolitical, and historical contexts.

ambivalent work*s presents case studies, close- and against-the-grain readings of artworks across different media and geographies, conversations on the epistemological and methodological frameworks of a queerly-informed art history, and artistic contributions. Together they revisit central aspects such as visibility, failure, transgression, and subversion in recent art production while at the same time providing valuable links for transhistorical explorations.

Making a case for polyvalence and simultaneity, ambivalent work*s demonstrates how intersectional approaches extend the examination of queer capacities in art and art history beyond issues related solely to sexuality and gender. Scholarly and artistic articulations equally push the boundaries of the academic field of art history while giving shape to an (im)possible project of a “queer art history.” This book features contributions by Daniel Berndt, Jennifer Doyle, Aleksandra Gajowy, David J. Getsy, Susanne Huber, Katrin Köppert, Christian Liclair, Renate Lorenz, Fiona McGovern, Diyi Mergenthaler, Lucas Odahara, Rena Onat, Barbara Paul, and Ashkan Sepahvand.
 

Daniel Berndt is an art historian and currently teaches at the Institute of Art History, University of Zurich. He is the author of Wiederholung als Widerstand? (Repetition as Resistance?). Susanne Huber works as a researcher on the history and theory of art at the University of Bremen. She is coeditor of the book series Oyster: Feminist and Queer Approaches to Arts, Cultures, and Genders and the author of Vom Konsum des Begehrens. Appropriation Art, Sex Wars und ein postmoderner Bilderstreit. Christian Liclair is an art historian and critic as well as editor-in-chief of TEXTE ZUR KUNST.