Inside Killjoy's Kastle: Dykey Ghosts, Feminist Monsters, and Other Lesbian Hauntings

by Allyson Mitchell (Editor)

Overview

Hundreds of years of ridicule, persecution, erasure, misunderstanding, and institutionalization could put anyone in a bad mood. Killjoy invites you into her kastle for a queer exorcism and celebration of the past.

Lesbian feminist histories can have a haunting effect on the present. This book explores the making and experience of Killjoy’s Kastle, an immersive walk-through installation and performance artwork (by Allyson Mitchell and Deirdre Logue). Inspired by Evangelical Christian hell houses, the exhibition has been staged in four cities so far – Toronto, London, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia – engaging thousands in interactive encounters with the spirits that haunt feminist and queer history. Where traditional hell houses set out to scare and convert, Killjoy’s Kastle cheekily aims to provoke and pervert. Inside Killjoy’s Kastle extends and reflects on the theoretical and political legacies of the installation in chapters by queer and feminist scholars and in vignettes by participating artists. The many colourful photos in the book also bring the kastle to life, offering an important visual context.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780774861571
Publisher:	University of British Columbia Press
Publication date:	09/15/2019
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	(w) x (h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Allyson Mitchell is a maximalist artist working in sculpture, performance, installation, and film. She is based in Toronto, where she is an associate professor in the School of Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies at York University and runs FAG Feminist Art Gallery with her partner, Deirdre Logue.

Cait McKinney is an assistant professor in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University. Their first book, on lesbian-feminist information histories, is forthcoming in 2020.

Table of Contents

Lesbian Rule: Welcome to the Hell House / Cait McKinney and Allyson Mitchell

RISING FROM THE DEAD: INCEPTION

1 Scaling Up and Sharing Out Dyke Culture: Killjoy’s Kastle’s Haunted Block Party / Heather Love

• Lesbianizing the Institution: The Haunting Effects of Killjoy Hospitality at the Art Gallery of York University / Emelie Chhangur

2 Feminist Killjoys (and Other Wilful Subjects) / Sara Ahmed

• Killjoy in the ONE Archives: Activating Los Angeles’s Queer Art and Activist Histories / David Evans Frantz

THE KASTLE: EXECUTION

3 Inside Job: Learning, Collaboration, and Queer-Feminist Contagion in Killjoy’s Kastle / Helena Reckitt

• Valerie Solanas as the Goddamned Welcoming Committee / Felice Shays
• Valerie Solanas Script

4 Playing Demented Women’s Studies Professor Tour Guide, or Performing Monstrosity in Killjoy’s Kastle / Moynan King

• Demented Women’s Studies Professor Tour Guide Script
• The Sound of White Girls Crying / Nazmia Jamal
• Paranormal Killjoys / Ginger Brooks Takahashi
• Menstruating Trans Man / Chase Joynt
• A Ring around Your Finger Is a Cord around Your Genitals! / Chelsey Lichtman
• Once upon a Time I Was a Riot Ghoul / Kalale Dalton-Lutale
• Riot Ghoul / Andie Shabbar
• Inconvenienced / Madelyne Beckles
• On the Cusp of the Kastle / Karen Tongson

5 Processing Killjoy’s Kastle: A Deep Lez Performance / Ann Cvetkovich

THE CRYPT: ARCHIVING AND REFLECTION

• Facebook Statements: “We Learn More Every Time We Do This”

6 Reflections of a Real-Life Feminist Killjoy: Ball-Busters and the Recurring Trauma of Intergene

What People are Saying About This

Heather Davis

All the rumours are true: lesbian feminist performance artists are terrifying, titillating, and in-your-face political. This book extends the fright and delight of Killjoy's Kastle: A Lesbian Haunted House, revamping the genre of the exhibition catalogue to include, in true feminist fashion, all the various heroines, critics, and guides that influenced and contributed to the project. A book for everyone committed to resisting heteropatriarchal violence, and who wants to laugh (and cry) while doing it.

Jennifer Doyle

Urgent, necessary, and joyful.