Pink Labor on Golden Streets: Queer Art Practices builds on an exhibition and conference at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna that explored the contradictory standpoints of queer art practices, conceptions of the body, and ideas of “queer abstraction,” a term coined by Jack Halberstam that raises questions to do with (visual) representations in the context of gender, sexuality, and desire. It is particularly concerned with where form and politics crossover, citing the various combinations, juxtapositions, and the play between artistic strategies.

This publication brings together papers from the 2012 conference and writing on artworks and art practices. In addition to testimonials from queer performers on the topic of “drag,” the book also includes interviews, essays, collage, and more personal writing. By placing these contemporary practices in a historical perspective and revising the perceived divergence between artistic attitudes and formal approach, this publication offers diverse and thought-provoking points of view.