ABSTRACT:

Martinican-born poet and theoretician Édouard Glissant suggests that a shift to “archipelagic thinking” can allow one to see the world metaphorically as a collection of islands that are connected to each other. I will consider the exhibition WOMEN我們, organized by Abby Chen, that travelled from Shanghai (2011) to San Francisco (2012) and to Miami (2013) through Glissant’s thinking. WOMEN我們 explored queer Chinese feminism and in a nod to the cities in which the venues were located, the curators expanded the checklist at each leg of the tour. In this way the curators aimed not to essentialize or center queer Chinese feminism but productively connect it to (for example) Latinx subjectivities and Asian-American feminist concerns. This kind of curatorial approach allows for a discussion beyond vertical relationships of power within nations and seems particularly urgent given the contemporary rise of homophobic, xenophobic, and misogynist nationalisms around the world.