A Sinking Feeling: Southern Decadence ‘22

It is often thought that the decadent phase of any civilization precedes its collapse–a time when excessive ornamentation compensates for a deeper systemic imbalance. Indeed, the latin root decadere means “to fall” or “to sink.” The opulence of the Baroque period was a response to the structural threat of the Reformation. The grandeur of the Belle Époch disguised the disintegration of Europe’s balance of power. Decadence always walks the line between manic pleasure and deep rooted unease. 

In 1972, a group of New Orleanians, both gay and straight, held a party where guests were to come dressed as their favorite decadent Southerner. Today the house party has exploded into a six day bacchanalia attended by hundreds of thousands who rove the streets of the Quarter late into the night under the eerie glow of LED street lamps. The dazzling display of queer love and sexual liberation is set against a backdrop of police surveillance, piles of waste, and bodily exploitation. It is the domain of queer culture, and by extension Southern Decadence, to own these contradictions in the midst of what might be the age of our own demise.