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Riley Joy Gantt:

BE/LONGING
 
Riley Joy Gantt
Cinema & Media Studies and American Studies major
 
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Your Worst Fear, Your Best Fantasy
lithographs, laser cut overlays
2022
PNW 2nd floor lobby alcove
 
a wall covered with red prints, many with cut-out text overlays
 
 
This studio project explores and challenges the vilification of queer women in horror movies. It builds on the independent research I pursued last semester with Professor Fisher in American Studies. Horror as a genre has always been used to help process our deepest fears, and the fear of queerness is no exception. While there is fairly extensive scholarship on the ways queer men have been portrayed as monsters in horror films, there is a severe lack of research on queer women’s role. The types of villains that queer women have been cast as are a direct result of fears and stereotypes, not just around queer people, but specifically lesbian and bisexual women. I’m interested in making images that examine, deconstruct and reconstruct this narrative of queer women as something to be feared. 
 
close up of a bright red print with cut-out text reading 'SHE IS THE MONSTER'
 
close-up of overlapping bright red prints. The closest has cut-out text reading 'WHAT ARE YOU SO AFRAID OF?'
 
a large installation of many overlapping bright red prints with cut-out text
 
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