🌈We're Here We're Queer - Art Exhibition🎨
TRUE NORTH - How many queer life stories have been destroyed?
Plaster, acrylics, 2021
Zed Gregory
True North asks why we default to heterosexuality when we look at our ancestors? I grew up without role models, not seeing myself anywhere until I was an adult. Turns out I was everywhere, all through time.
Marianne North (Hastings born painter, botanist and explorer, 1830-1890) lived her life most queerly. This plaque celebrates that.
Queer Intimacy
Harriet McMorrow-Purcell
Yarn on Hessian Fabric, 2020
This tapestry explores the importance of intimacy in queer relationships that are defined by their 'knowing tenderness', rather than by sex. By placing it in a museum collection, I've curated the possibility of having wider conversations about queer space, place, community, and historiography.
What We Leave Behind... and Keep With Us
Facial imprint created on-site, 16/03/2021
Mother Demdike
As a drag performer, make-up is my most powerful tool for creating a gender illusion.
I preserve these facial imprints after every show as a memento. They are my 'photo album', a flashback to everything I put into each concept, and to memories of the people who shared the experience with me.
Pair of Vivienne Westwood Heels
PVC, 2010
Pair of Dr Martens
Leather, elastic, rubber, 2013
Fox Irving
Accessories often reveal something personal. Dr Marten boots can signify strength, Vivienne Westwood heels can signify confidence. Both pairs of shoes have enabled an individual negotiation of queer identity. Within the queer community there are dress codes, colours, and items that can be used to signify sexual orientation. These shoes have been used to subtly communicate that the wearer belongs to the community.
"Coming Out"
A Post-It note used to announce to my non-heteronormativity, about 2016
Paris Grande / Jack Kennedy
As a queer person, coming out is often part of the journey to happiness.
I used this note to come out to my mum at the age of 6. Unbeknownst to me until this year, she had kept it in my memories box. I didn't understand at the time how significant it would be to my life.
Luckily, my mum did.
