As the World Burns: Queer Photography and Nightlife in Boston
Tufts University Art Gallery, Boston, MA • artgalleries.tufts.edu • Through April 21, 2024
Presented simultaneously with Christian Walker: The Profane and the Poignant, As the World Burns: Queer Photography and Nightlife in Boston takes a deep dive into the photography of Boston’s queer scene from 1974 to 1984, corresponding with Walker’s time in the city. Defying genres, the exhibition unites fine art, instructional, vernacular, and documentary photography with experimental video and photographically derived textiles. Curated by Jackson Davidow, Ph.D., in collaboration with the TUAG curator, Laurel V. McLaughlin, the exhibition highlights a new presentation of photographically generated works formed from LGBTQ+ histories contextualized within Boston and its changing cityscape.
Upon entering, we follow Walker’s series The Theatre Project, a line of analog black and white prints diving into the cruising culture of the Pilgrim Theatre, the images reveal shifting scenes of lone figures dimly glimpsed and couples kissing. These photos set the exhibition tone–contemplative, passionate, considerate, and frank–often located on the streets of the Combat Zone, in nightclubs, and glancing in on intimate scenes.
On one wall, photographs highlight a single fashion show at Spit, a former nightclub on Lansdowne Street, where Gail Thacker, one of the performers, captured the excitement of readying for the night. The only depiction of the fashion show itself is Philip Phlash’s Mark Morrisroe, Pat Hearn and Friends, capturing the performers giddy on stage.
Images surround Mark Winer’s Super 8 film, after which the exhibition is named, As the World Burns (1973)–dreamlike and almost erotic, Winer envisions Bobby Busnach’s life as a hustler and others pictured throughout the exhibition. Haunting and hypnotizing, it is hard to look away, as music entices viewers into scenes of friendship intermingled with masturbation and sexually explicit flirtations.
Illuminating Boston’s unseen queer histories, As the World Burns expands the canon of the Boston School, first coined by Nan Goldin and solidified by Lia Gangitano and Milan Kalinovska’s exhibition The Boston School. As the World Burns expands this canon to include many previously unconsidered artists. Focusing on a single decade and inviting a new perspective on community, passion, and intimacy, Davidow unearths the history of LGBTQ+ artists in Boston.
— Abbi Kenny