"An Outlaw in Babylon: Hélio Oiticica’s Transgressive Strategies in the Margins of New York, 1970–1978"
(Master’s Thesis, Hunter College, 2021).
Mayer’s 2021 Master’s Thesis, “ An Outlaw in Babylon: Hélio Oiticica’s Transgressive Strategies in the Margins of New York,1970–1978" is an examination of the Brazilian artist Hélio Oiticica’s biography and art practice while self-exiled to New York City in the 1970s, or during his “outlaw period.” The artist’s utilization of various aspects of his increasingly marginal/marginalized identity to challenge political injustice and social hypocrisy through his art is examined across four chapters and an epilogue.
Thesis Advisor: Dr. Emily Braun
Second Reader: Dr. Harper Montgomery
For more information or to access Mayer’s thesis, please contact Mayer directly through the webform.
In March 2022, Mayer presented “The Queer Politics of Hélio Oiticica’s Babylonian Cinema” at the This Must Be the Place: Latin American Artists in New York, 1965–1975 conference hosted by the Americas Society and the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA). The presentation, which is based on the third chapter of her master’s thesis, examines the influence of Underground cinema and the Gay Rights Movement on Oiticica’s film practice during the 1970s.