Documents: Deconstructing Homophobic Signifiers

An installation of text in salt by Frank Pietronigro.

Background:

Documents was first presented to an audience as a time-based public work of art, documented on Hi8 video, between April 14 and April 20, 1996, at the Diego Rivera Gallery in San Francisco. It has since been performed in many public spaces, with the artist engaging the audience in dialogue about the nature of the work as he creates the piece in each space.

The work is based on negative signifiers which have been applied to gay men throughout the ages. As a basis for researching the text, Frank referenced the Oxford English Dictionary and the Dictionary of Slang to discover this litany of derisive words.

A unique, bilingual performance of Documents was presented on October 20, 2000, as part of the international exhibition Sister Spaces, held at San Francisco’s Southern Exposure Gallery at Project Artaud and at Lisbon’s Galeria Ze Dos Bois. A live webcast, from Lisbon and San Francisco, presented simultaneous installations of Documents. Lisbon artist, João Pedro Vale, co-produced the work in Lisbon using derogatory Portuguese words as Pietronigro created the work in English in San Francisco.

Documents has also been performed during public “art attacks” on city streets and twice as an educational experience for students at Park Day Elementary School in Oakland, CA.

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