Queering Grief Syllabus

From 2020 to 2023, alongside each of our major programs, Level Ground worked with artists to curate a themed media syllabus of podcasts, articles, films, books, etc. Reflecting their residency show BATH, the focus of 2022 resident artist Leo Alas’s “Queering Grief” syllabus is around love, trauma, and the body.

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CURATOR’S NOTE:

The syllabus begins with bell hooks as a basis for community care that revolves around a love ethic. I follow up with The Queer Art of Failure because it is a framework I return to in my art making-- partially in reverence of "subjugated knowledge" (a la Michel Foucault) and partially an aesthetic decision to fail often and well. From there, the syllabus contains various relationships to grief including death, disability, trauma, and political disenfranchisement.

I am interested in grief as a way to move through transitions and the experiences of injustice; and especially in what an embodiment of grief looks like. This leads me to highlight, in a serious way, Moonlight (2016) for its scenes that show Chiron immersing in water, in his sink, in the ocean — and in a less serious way, ASMR research for it's exploration of the sensations that come with pleasing sounds, our relationship to others, and the virtual experience of care. Items #11, 13, and 14 on the syllabus are primarily interested in the greater experience of grief and how it exists in a larger liberatory battle.

‍—Leo Alas

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