Grotesque Corporeality: Queering The Bulge In Gay Male Underwear

This creative Major Research Project (MRP) uses a practice-led research method approach to investigate a correlation between the queer body and the grotesque. The research questions attempt to explore the way queer bodies are used to transgress and subvert both heteronormative and homonormative ideologies and masculinities using grotesque humour. This project also examines the relationship between fashion and the body to resist normative values and ideals. Artistic practices combine to create a volume of work consisting of collage, underwear garments, and photographs. These creative outputs are then analyzed and discussed with a focus on Mikhail Bakhtin’s theories of the grotesque and carnivalesque, Gilles Deleuze’s theory of the Body without Organs, and queer theory.