• DOI:10.1080/00043249.2016.1171547
• Corpus ID: 192943248

Queer Art / Queer Failure

@article{Takemoto2016QueerA,
  title={Queer Art / Queer Failure},
  author={Tina Takemoto},
  journal={Art Journal},
  year={2016},
  volume={75},
  pages={85 - 88}
}

• Tina Takemoto
• Published 2 January 2016
• Art
• Art Journal

Alone on stage in the heat of the spotlight, she is sweating and her heart is pounding as she strains to detect any signs of laughter beyond the layers of cheap polyester and foam encasing her body. This act was a bad idea. Perhaps the drunken flight attendant routine would have been funnier. Now she is stuck on her hands and knees wearing a banana suit. Shit . . . For the queer stand-up comic, it doesn’t get much worse. Tammy Rae Carland conjures up a comedian’s worst nightmare in her series of photographs I’m Dying Up Here. Within the harsh, exhilarating world of stand-up comedy, the task of the performer is to keep audience members laughing by any means necessary, regardless of whether they are laughing with you or at you. In Carland’s photographs, queer and feminist comedians are caught bombing on stage while their faces remain hidden amid ridiculous props and awkward poses. These stark pictures remind us how quickly the energy in the room can turn from exuberant laughter to crushing silence. Carland pays tribute to the female stand-up comedians Moms Mabley, Phyllis Diller, and Joan Rivers, who plumbed the depths of racism and sexism by performing their signature roles as a toothless cantankerous bag lady, a Tina Takemoto