Welcome to Inherent Vice!

Welcome to Inherent Vice - A compendium of queer heritage and arts bits from past and present, put together for your viewing. Some food for thought. A call to action. A coaster for your cup of tea.

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If you work in a museum, chances are that, in one way or another, you contribute to the preservation of cultural heritage. A traditional curator is typically expected to understand an object’s history and cultural context. Others in the museum, however, often view the same object through the alternate lens of their specific roles. The curator sees a 16th-century Benin mask; the conservator sees a well-preserved piece of elephant ivory; the registrar sees a CITES-listed, legal and logistical nightmare.

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Specialists in queer history and curation are privy to queerness in heritage, though the rest of us, including traditional curators, often need a helping hand. Queer historians identify objects and unravel their stories, pushing back against a heavily straightwashed and patriarchal version of history. Identities and stories have been erased, hidden, or edited, and the histories that are presented are unlikely to represent the true LGBTQIA+ life of the past.​

 

Queer symbolism and stories can connect objects to their queer communities, imbuing them with their significance. A train ticket from the Museum of Transology collection is meaningless without the knowledge that it enabled the meeting of a man and his girlfriend for the first time following his transition. An image of Woden on a gilt bronze buckle from the collection at the Ashmolean might speak more to fluid gender expression in Anglo-Saxon mythology, and less to war and sorcery divinity, when interpreted by a queer curator.

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While most large museums have some form of LGBTQIA+ collection, trail, or tour in place, it's less likely that a museum will have a dedicated curator with this specialism. As a result, LGBTQIA+ collections can be infrequently reviewed, developed, catalogued, or displayed in a queer context. ​​There’s an increasing momentum in new museums to document queer life on the community's terms. Smaller museums and archives dedicated to marginalised groups are emerging, giving agency to communities to collect, curate, and preserve queer histories with authenticity and care.

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As collection care professionals, an object’s materiality can become the primary focus. Intangible value and consultation with source communities is an established museum practice with certain collections. However, frameworks for working with the heritage of marginalised groups are poorly defined, particularly in conservation and collection care. How queer communities would choose to care for and preserve their objects, if given the agency to do so, is rarely considered.

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Conservation studios, collection management workshops, science laboratories, and offices can feel disconnected from the interpretation of collections, yet these spaces are sites of power that position collection care professionals to influence how collections are understood. Our work is increasingly shared through outreach, both in person and online. Because of this, we have a responsibility to understand queer heritage and to advocate for the community with which the heritage resonates.

 

This zine aims to develop our collective understanding of this heritage, empower advocacy within conservation and collection care for marginalised communities, inspire a reimagination of our roles, explore new collaborations, and to hold space for queerness in our professions.