Making And Mediating: Queer Rocker

Queer theorist Sara Ahmed suggests, “queer furnishing is not such a surprising formulation: the word ‘furnish’ is related to the word ‘perform’ and thus relates to the very question of how things appear. Queer becomes a matter of how things appear, how they gather, how they perform, to create edges of spaces and worlds.” This rocking chair is “queer” because it is simultaneously a dividing wall, a window, a table, and a chair. It is “queer” because its holes become its strength and its structure. It is “queer” because it makes the politics of its own production visible. It is never singular, as it desires adaptation and interdependence. It is “queer” because it rests in organizing spaces that recognize the rights of LGBTQIA+ people, which have been and will continue to be won through grassroots community organizing for economic and social justice.

In 2013, I created a document that described how to make the Queer Rocker, so that students in many places could re-make it.

fig. 7-5 Queer Rocker, 2013, CNC prototype oak plywood, ratchet straps, newspapers, 48 × 30 × 44 inches. Courtesy of the artist. Photo by Ryan Tempro.

fig. 7-6 Queer Rocker, 2013, CNC prototype oak plywood, ratchet straps, newspapers, 48 × 30 × 44 inches. Courtesy of the artist. Photo by Ryan Tempro.