IN L.A., SCI-FI MEETS LGBTQ+ IN AN INTRIGUING LOOK AT THE CITY OF ANGELS, DEVILS, ALIENS

IN L.A., SCI-FI MEETS LGBTQ+ IN AN INTRIGUING LOOK AT THE CITY OF ANGELS, DEVILS, ALIENS — AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN

AN EXHIBITION HIGHLIGHTS FASCINATING AFFINITIES BETWEEN THE OCCULT, SCI-FI, AND QUEER ART COMMUNITIES OF 20TH-CENTURY LOS ANGELES

“Sci-Fi, Magick, Queer L.A.: Sexual Science and the Imagination”
University of Southern California, Fisher Museum of Art
823 Exposition Boulevard
Los Angeles CA 90089
Exhibition on view from August 22 through November 23, 2024

This article’s publication date: November 1, 2024

by Sarah Fensom, brutjournal’s U.S.A. West Coast bureau chief

LOS ANGELES — Enter the first gallery of “Sci-Fi, Magick, Queer L.A.: Sexual Science and the Imagination,” an exhibition now on view at the University of Southern California’s Fisher Museum of Art (through November 23), and you’re met with an intricate diagram covering an entire wall.

A wall-sized diagram in the exhibition “Sci-Fi, Magick, Queer L.A.: Sexual Science and the Imagination” shows how, over the decades of the 20th century, the interests and activities of various groups or communities in Los Angeles involved with the occult, esoterica, the exploration of sexuality, and what are now known as queer or LGBTQ+ themes often overlapped. All photos by Sarah Fensom

At first glance, its thickets of lines and names sprawling out in all directions resemble a map of Los Angeles’s notorious freeway system. In fact, it’s a visual representation of the many important, interconnected people and institutions that, in various ways, were involved in L.A.’s sci-fi, occult, and queer communities over the decades of the 20th century.