Amaaya Dasgupta

Dissensus and Grievability in Felix Gonzales-Torres' Untitled (Portrait of Ross in LA), 1991

Essay
2023
In this paper, I argue for the importance of what Jacques Rancière terms “dissensus” in queer contemporary art, especially as exemplified in Felix Gonzalez-Torres' Untitled (Portrait of Ross in LA.) 1991. Through a critical analysis of the artwork, I will demonstrate how via a redistribution of the sensible, Gonzalez-Torres also redistributes what Judith Butler terms ‘grievability,’ both enactments that are not only inherently political, but sustain each other in this act of queer performance.

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Dissensus and Grievability in Felix Gonzales-Torres' Untitled (Portrait of Ross in LA), 1991
Dissensus and Grievability in Felix Gonzales-Torres' Untitled (Portrait of Ross in LA), 1991
Dissensus and Grievability in Felix Gonzales-Torres' Untitled (Portrait of Ross in LA), 1991
Dissensus and Grievability in Felix Gonzales-Torres' Untitled (Portrait of Ross in LA), 1991

Work by

Amaaya Dasgupta

Writer, Artist

“My work mostly experiments with themes of sexuality and sensuality, the politics of body and gender, and the ideas of the self as a private and social being – always transient, always in flux. It is...” [More]