Considering care as relational queer praxis

In this article, I analyse Nicolas Bourriaud’s Relational Aesthetics and some early critical responses, primarily from art historian Claire Bishop, from two perspectives: firstly, positing care as an alternative mode of assessment for relational work; and secondly, from the queer perspective, exploring the radical implications of the little-discussed queer roots of Bourriaud’s theory, the work of Cuban–American artist Félix González-Torres. From this analysis and a reflection on my personal experience of a relational artwork, I develop a theory of care as relational queer praxis and consider some of its possibilities for the design of contemporary art exhibitions and space.