by Keith Evans
For obscure reasons the Homocommunist Propaganda exhibition appears on Giovanni’s Room’s Instagram page but not on their website, for reasons somewhat less obscure it’s about the intersection of homosexuality and communism (the gallery is named after James Baldwin’s groundbreaking novel about gay identity), for reasons that will become clear it remains unclear why this show appears in its current form, or why anything would.
What Homocommunist Propaganda consists of is a few tables, that have, upon them, books. There are a few quotes about gayness and communism on the walls and there are a few desultory prints that advertise the idea of being a gay communist, but really it is books. They aren’t clever sculptures of books, slyly re-interpetative paintings of books, books photographed in such a way as to reveal that which one might not expect about books, or even particularly visual or tactile examples of the bookmaker’s art—it is simply a variety of books by a variety of authors about being gay or communist or both. You can pick them up, I guess. I did—nobody stopped me.
I suppose if I somehow made it into the middle of Hollywood while thinking I was the only gay communist on Earth and knew to knock on the door of the gallery named after a gay communist book, I would be generally cheered to know, upon seeing this exhibition, that I was not alone in my gayness and communistness, but otherwise there is no clear reason why the fuck.
Leaving aside the dull question of whether laying out some books is art (I hear Brice Marden is, so why not?)—does not relieve us of the responsibility of asking why we are being asked to view this admittedly fascinating and increasingly relevant cultural history in a way seemingly designed to keep us at the furthest distance possible from it. There’s nowhere to sit so…are we supposed to read novel-length texts standing up? Are we supposed to be surprised the texts exist? Why is this like this?
The real answer is that there is no answer. The question “What is an audience supposed to be getting out of this?” is as old-fashioned as the question “Is it art?” Giovanni’s Room is simply existing as a space that broadcasts—just in case you didn’t catch it from the name—that it is ok with gayness and communism. It is cousin to shows like the Joan Didion exhibition at the Hammer—why is it in an art space and not a library? Because shut up!
Homocommunist Propaganda allows the gallery to have an art opening where you meet other people who might talk about gayness and communism, it allows that opening to feature a gay communist reading a book that is gay and communist, it allows those involved to disclose that involvement on their resumés, it encourages a conversation about gayness and communism simply by dedicating such a large amount of relatively expensive real estate to it, and advertises another gay communist show in Paris (for the benefit of such gay communists among us as jet back and forth from Hollywood to France). It is here because it ingeniously fulfills, in other words, every single social function of fine art and none of the visual or intellectual ones. The gallery space has successfully referred to sensual pleasures, revolutionary ideas, and community while exploring none of those things.
Capitalism has so defeated this art space that it can do no more than pay a landlord for the privilege of advertising opposition to it.
Image: Courtesy Giovanni’s Room LA