El Alto | Queer: Gender Sexuality and the Arts in the Americas

El Alto 158
Mariah Garnett
159
QUEERING
THE FORM
A conversation between Mariah Garnet
and Ruth McCarthy
Ruth McCarthy (RM): In brief, how would you
describe the work you make?
Mariah Garnett (MG): I think my work deals with
re-structuring hierarchies within cinematic
language and production. In the briefest possible
terms, I call it experimental documentary. The
experiment, however, is looking at the power
dynamics at play in documentary filmmaking.
think of - to disrupt the conventions of how
we tell stories, but not necessarily how we
understand them.
RM: As an artist do you avoid using the label of
“queer” in terms of defining your work or is that
now something that is less limiting than it might
have been before in terms of how work will be
received or valued?
Trouble, 2019 © Mariah Garnett
RM: How would you describe the work you make
in relation to your idea of ‘queer’?
MG: I think it’s about breaking down binaries and
restructuring power. It’s not just about my own
subjectivity as a queer person, it’s about queering
the form. This is very important to me, because
if I use a straightforward (notice “straight” is at
the beginning of that word) approach to framing
whatever statement I am trying to make, isn’t that
kind of assimilationist? Like using the master’s
tools to dismantle the master’s house, to quote
Audre Lorde. For me, this is the difference
between a “queer” film and a “gay” or “lesbian”
film. This way I can make films about anything,
since I’m interested in so much more than my
own sexuality, and the films are still queer,
because the form is non-binary and incorporates
many different types of cinematic language into
one work. I use cell phone footage next to high
production value narrative shoots, personal
narrative, fiction, documentary approaches,
appropriation, re-enactment - whatever I can
MG: It’s definitely something I’ve wrestled with.
Not necessarily because of a fear of rejection by
straight culture, but more because the nuance
between queer and gay often just slips away, and
I didn’t want to feel trapped into only making
work about LGBT content. I think now that
I understand the queerness of my work to be
formal, it feels way less limiting. Like I can make
a movie about marines and have it still be queer,
even if none of them are.
RM: Why do you think making queer work is
relevant in the US right now?
MG: I think in the US we have a tendency to have
seriously “good” vs “bad” thinking on all sides of
the political spectrum. No matter who’s at the
center of the story, in the end, someone is always
“right” and someone else is always “wrong” and
the bad guy usually gets punished. There’s a big
push to start telling the stories of marginalised
people that never got told in mainstream culture,
which is great in some ways, but I think how we
tell these stories is almost as important as who
they are about. I don’t think it’s enough to take
the form of storytelling that dominant culture
has reserved for white heterosexual men and just
map it onto other people, because that mode of
storytelling is inherently tied into all of the power
structures that have kept white heterosexual
men in the driver’s seat for so long. It’s a delicate
balance, trying to navigate this shift. It seems
like there’s a big rush to balance the scales of
history right now, and it’s created this capitalist
vacuum that is trampling on nuance and further
marginalising those of us who aren’t equipped
to just “step up” into the system that has been
overtly hostile for so long. It’s like a gold rush for
equality. I think it’s important to tell stories about
queer people and tell them queerly. And I think
it’s important for queer people to tell stories
about non-queer people and tell them queerly,
if that makes sense.
RM: What are you seeing in terms of queer work
in general that is still exciting? (not specifically
names of artists but the type of work that’s
emerging in the US).
MG: I actually am not that tuned into what kind of
work is emerging here, but I’ve never really been
that focused on the future. I’m more into looking
back than forward. I think the work my friends
are doing is exciting. Some of the queer artists in
this year’s Whitney Biennial are pretty great and
they spearheaded and pulled off a pretty major
political victory so that was cool. Commonwealth
& Council, a gallery in LA, is showing some great
work and a lot of it is queer. I think looking
back at what’s happening in LA right now, they
are going to be significant. Full disclosure,
I just signed up with them, and that is why. And
whatever is going on at the Tom of Finland house
on any given day is always pretty exciting.