Seen Learning Resource by Decoder

SEEN

LEARNING RESOURCE By DECODER an artist-led LGBTQIA+ organisation expanding the Queer Gaze from West Cornwall.

CONTENTS

Introduction

How to use

LGBTQIA+ history

9 10 11 12

David Hockney / decriminalisation Maggi Hambling / lesbionic Stonewall Uprising David Robilliard / section 28 ACT UP! / AIDS crisis

14 Visibility 15 16 17

Sunil Gupta / representation Wo l f g a n g T i l l m a n s / Q u e e r s c e n e s Tr i a n g l e w i n d o w / p h o t o g r a p h y

18 Equality & Freedom 19 20 21 22

Duncan Grant / natural world Choose your animal / freedom Family / inclusive of everyone Michael Craig-Martin / reflections

23 Pride 24 25 26

Cornwall Pride LGBTQIA+ flags Howard Hodgkin / colour

27 Gender Diversity 28 29

P. S t a f f / Tr a n s a n d Q u e e r s t o r i e s Flo Brooks / transitions

30 31

Further links End notes

Seen is an Arts Council Collection National Partners Programme Exhibition at The Exchange in Penzance (Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange). The Seen exhibition is co-curated by young LGBTQIA+ people from Cornwall aged between 11 – 19 working in partnership with LGBT+ charity Intercom Trust, and SHARP, Programme Producer at Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange. This resource can be used by educators before visiting the Seen exhibition to plan learning activities prior to visiting the exhibition. It can be used within the exhibition or online by those who cannot attend in person.

This learning resource is aimed at educators to support learning that is inclusive of LGBTQIA+ experience, individuals, and families via the Seen exhibition at The Exchange in Penzance (Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange).

Suitable for key stages 3 - 4 + (age 11 - 16 +) and free for all to use.

What you will need:

Please use this pack as a guidline and to inspire ideas. Some subjects include violent histories and reclamied language from originally offensive usage so please tailor your teaching activities within the 11-16 age range. Please choose the activities best suited to your group.

Pen, pencil, coloured pencils, phone camera, p a p e r.

Flo Brooks, Butts Only (that’s the sound that lonely makes), 2018. Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London. © the artist

The expanding subject of Queer art involves an important history of reclamation, resistance, love, and freedom, and often explores personal experiences as well as depictions of LGBTQIA+ cultures.

HOW TO USE Before you visit Try getting familiar with the LGBTQIA+ acronym used in this resource. A full glossary of terms by Stonewall can give you a wider list of words used within LGBTQIA+ identity but for now just practise saying LGBTQIA+ It can be tricky! and nobody will judge you if you get it wrong while practising. Different groups use different versions of the acronym. Different versions are used in this pack in line with how each person or organisation use it. LGBT+ (with the plus representing everyone else) LGBTQ+ (to include both Queer and Questioning) LGBTQIA+ (to include a big an umbrella as possible)

L esbian G ay B isexual T rans Q ueer I ntersex A ce / Ally

Before you visit

Understanding LGBTQIA+ rights and changes to law regarding education.

LGBTQIA+ rights charity Stonewall were recently instrumental in a significant change to law that has been fought for since LGBTQIA+ people and allies first acted against Section 28 which was brought into law in 1988. Section 28 made the ‘promotion of homosexuality’ a crime. During 2020 the UK government made an amendment to the Children and Social Work Act 2017 making relationships education and relationships and sex education (RSE) compulsory in all of England’s primary and secondary schools. Within that teaching every school will teach about sexual orientation and gender identity, and all primary schools will be required to teach about different families, which can include LGBTQIA+ families. The SEEN collective was formed in collaboration with the Intercom Trust and is made up of members of different groups such as YAY (Young and Yourself). The Intercom Trust carry out pioneering work and have nurtured LGBT+ groups within schools empowering young people to be themselves in their school environments.

“To be seen is to be recognised for who you are, regardless.” “To be seen lifts others out of loneliness” “To be seen helps people to understand” - Members of the Seen Collective

It is important to the Seen Collective for this exhibition space to be a safer space to be yourself and to learn more about a diverse range of artists, identities and subjects related to LGBTQIA+ lives. Before you visit try mapping out a safer space agreement with your group, thinking of how you can respect each other and what being seen means to you. Being seen to me means:

LGBTQIA+ LGBTQIA+ HISTORY HISTORY 1960-2021 LGBTQIA+ artists in the Arts Council Collection selected by the young people include David Hockney and Maggi Hambling, who studied art and made their early artworks in the 1960s when homosexuality was still illegal in England. The selection also includes Gilbert & George, who have faced taboos head-on as ‘living sculptures’ since 1967, the year homosexuality was partially decriminalised. This painting by David Hockney titled We Two Boys Together Clinging was made in 1961 and depicts two male figures embracing. The painting derives its imagery from a poem of the same title by the 19th century American writer, Walt Whitman: two lines of the poem have been scribbled on the right hand side of the painting. Can you ﬁnd these words? David Hockney, We Two Boys Together Clinging, 1961 (Installaiton view) Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © David Hockney

Maggi Hambling Maggi Hambling is a British artist and Queer icon who paints and has also made significant public sculpture including ‘A Conversation with Oscar Wilde’ which is a bronze memorial and ‘Scallop’ which is a 4-metre-high steel sculpture on Aldeburgh beach in Suffolk that celebrates composer Benjamin Britten. Hambling describes herself as lesbionic, she has remarked that she prefers the term ‘dyke’ than lesbian. Like the word Queer, the term Dyke has been reclaimed (see Dyke Tales within the Seen exhibition) but it has not become widely used. Hambling made this early work during a life drawing class at art school. Hambling has continued to explore the human form in some of her work and she is celebrated for her portraits of friends, family and famous figures, some of which are held in the National Portrait Gallery, London. Hambling has previously said : “Picasso said that we are all partly male and partly female, and you have to bring the whole thing together to make a work of art and I completely agree with that.”

Maggi Hambling. Drawing from life: back view, 1965 Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © the artist

Find a figure in the exhibited works and draw your own version of that figure. Research who the artist is. Is the figure real or imagined? Is it abstract or realistic? Who is looking at who?

least three items of clothing, which aligned with their assigned sex at birth otherwise be criminalised. Those in same sex couples would swap partners to try and avoid arrest. Gender and sexuality was policed and anyone stepping outside of norms were likely to be subject to violence both on the street and by the police during raids. On June 28, 1969 the LGBTQIA+ community fought back.

Stonewall Riots The Stonewall Riots, also known as the Stonewall Uprising, were a series of spontaneous demonstrations by members of the LGBTQIA+ community in response to a police raid at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village in New York City. The uprising followed many years of police brutality and abuse, which was a common occurrence. During these raids the police would enforce the ‘masquerade law’, which stated that a person should wear at

Those present are said to include Stormé DeLarverie, a lesbian activist who was arrested that evening for wearing ‘masculine attire’. It is said that the riots started as a response to this arrest. Others who were instrumental in the uprising were Marsha P Johnson and Sylvia Riviera, pictured here. LGBTQIA+ activists gathered at The Stonewall Inn over the following evenings and this moment became a catalyst that gave way to the modern LGBTQIA+ rights movement. Johnson was a founding member of the Gay Liberation Front and co-founded the radical activist group Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (S.T.A.R.), alongside close friend Sylvia Rivera.

David Robilliard The work of David Robilliard captures queer joy and human love in the form of ‘poem paintings’. Robilliard lived in Shoreditch in London and was supported by artists Gilbert & George who pubished his first poetry volume, Inevitable, in 1984. Robilliard’s painting A candle in the dark is better than nothing at all was made during 1988, which was the year the artist died of AIDS-related illness and was also the year that Section 28 was brought into law- prohibiting the ‘promotion of homosexuality’.

David Robilliard, A candle in the dark is better than nothing at all, 1988 (installation view) Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © the artist’s estate

The AIDS crisis is a painful period in Queer history. Gay and bisexual men were particularly vulnernable to the HIV virus. Homophobic views considered AIDS as a punishment for being gay and there were media black outs ignoring a community in crisis.

11 12

Much of LGBTQIA+ culture is reclaimed from dark and painful origins. The black and pink triangles were used to identify ‘anti-social’ and LGBTQIA+ people in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany. Gay men were forced to wear inverted pink triangles and black triangles were for ‘anti-social’ prisoners including lesbians, prostitutes, and women who refused to have children. As with the word Queer, the black and pink triangles were reclaimed as an act of resistance and solidarity. Queer identity is active and political and these symbols are poweful and loaded. We use this symbolism positively but we never forget where it originated. The pink triangle was used by ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) who are an international, grassroots political group working to end the AIDS pandemic that was formed in 1987.

In 1967 homosexuality was partially decriminalised in England and Wales.

Varied genders and sexualities have existed for as long as people have. We create new terms such as trans and non-binary, but this isn’t the invention of a new type of person. New language allows us new ways of describing ourselves which feels more accurate. There are many different genders and ways of describing them all around the world. In the UK we historically have a more binary understanding of gender and heterosexist ideas of sexuality, which can be linked to patriarchal oppression, colonialism and British rule. Many anti LGBTQIA+ laws were created by the British and were imposed on commonwealth countries as well as those in living in the UK. It can be difficult to address our own history in the UK of homophobia and gender-based oppression. Changes to laws are relatively recent, it remains important to stand up for LGBTQIA+ rights.

The Gender Recognition Act was passed in 2004 giving trans people full legal recognition in their appropriate gender, however transphobia still persists in the UK. In May 2021, the UK government rejected a petition calling for the legal recognition of non-binary as a gender identity.

Further reading ALOK- gender non conforming activism https://www.alokvmenon.com/writing

BBC’s LGBT+ Timeline

https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/lgbtq/lgbt q-timeline/

Historic England’s Non Conforming Histories

https://historicengland.org.uk/research/inclusiveheritage/lgbtq-heritage-project/trans-and-gende r-nonconforming-histories/

VISIBILTY The process of producing this exhibition has asked the question of what it means for LGBTQIA+ people to be seen - to lead, to educate and to be visible. The Seen Collective decided it was important to them that LGBTQIA+ people were in the exhibition, rather than selecting works based on subject matter by artists who don’t identify as LGBTQIA+. Identifying artists as LGBTQIA+ can be problematic as not every artist talks about their gender and sexuality in relation to their artistic practice and so the list is not exhaustive, however it provided a base to work from that felt authentic to the group. Some artists do purposefully work to enrich the visibility of their communities and it is important that we learn from this, that we learn from what an artist who identifies as LGBTQIA+ is highlighting or expanding. All education is now inclusive of LGBTQIA+ people by law so now is a great time to openly discuss and learn about LGBTQIA+ experience. Artists in Seen such as Sunil Gupta and Wolfgang Tillmans have photographed LGBTQIA+ communities extensively. Sunil Gupta’s career has been spent making work responding to the injustices suffered by gay men across the globe, himself included, including themes of sexual identity, migration, race and family. Photographer Wolfgang Tillmans has chronicled gay sub culture in London and Berlin, focussing on youth culture, club nights, and fashion.

Sunil Gupta “It had always seemed to me that art history seemed to stop at Greece and never properly dealt with gay issues from another place. Therefore it became imperative to create some images of gay Indian men; they didn't seem to exist. After some experimental starts in the early 80's I was awarded a commission from the Photographers' Gallery (London) to make this project that visualised the experience of gay men in Delhi, my hometown. At the time they seemed particularly vulnerable as a group and didn't have a recognisable place in society. As a gay man, I felt I couldn't live in such a repressive atmosphere. Now there is a claim for more visibilty but there is still a shortage of cultural production.” * * https://www.sunilgupta.net/exiles.html Is there an LGBTQIA+ community in your home town? Sunil Gupta, Pragati Maidan, from the series 'Exiles', 1987 Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © the artist

What does Sunil Gupta mean about cultural production?

Wolfgang Tillmans

“I’ve been interested in a pansexual approach to the body and to sexuality. I never wanted to be defined as a gay artist making art so there has always been men, women and the playful interaction of genders either the same or male and female. There's been a lot of discussion on what the term queer means and increasingly there are also heterosexual people that self identify as queer so it's more of a state of mind but it can’t be discussed away either, we’re all just queer. The word has a certain charge. It’s funny because in German, queer means from the side, not like at an angle and I guess queer always should be. It should challenge a certainty and a single reading of the world, which I like to keep present in my work.” * * www.showstudio.com/projects/in_camera/wolfgang_tillmans

Wolfgang Tillman’s photographs can teach us to look at things from a different angle or to look more closely. What can you ﬁnd in the Seen exhibition by looking from a different angle or by looking more closely?

Wolfgang Tillmans, Dan, 2008 Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © the artist. Partial gift of the artist and Maureen Paley, London. Purchased with the assistance of the Art Fund.

Can you find the triangle window? Take a look at each other from a different perspective through the different sides of the triangle window. With permission, ask your group or your friends to photograph each other. Back in the classroom or at home see what these photos look like as a collection. If you feel comfortable you can share your photos on Instagram and add the hashtag #seen and tag @newlynexchange to join our online exhibition. If you are not in a group try looking at the exhibition through the window and see what new things you might notice.

EQUALITY & FREEDOM The Equality Act (2010) makes it unlawful to discriminate against someone on the grounds of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion/belief, sex (gender) and sexual orientation.* In the UK there have been gradual changes towards non-discrimination and equal opportunity. Homophobia and transphobia are recognised as hate crimes. However homophobic and transphobic violence is still wide spread both online and offline. For some LGBTQIA+ people society provides more freedoms than ever before, but for some society is a restrictive place with violence, fear and anxiety. The number of homophobic hate crime reports in the UK has tripled and the number of transphobic hate crime reports has quadrupled over the last six years. * *

Change is taking place all the time, it was only in 2020 that it became compulsary to not exclude LGBTQIA+ people from education. Currently conversion therapy is still legal in the UK. Conversion therapy is the process of supressing a person’s sexuality or gender. The UK Government has now published a consultation to find out what people think about this practice. As a society we can work together to make changes to the law to make the UK a safe place for all LGBTQIA+ people.

* www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010 ** www.pinknews.co.uk/2021/10/11/hate-crime-rise-transphobic-homophobic/

Duncan Grant “How much I want to scream sometimes here for want of being able to say something I mean.” Duncan Grant was an artist who was part of the Bloomsbury group. The Bloomsbury group were famously described by Dorothy Parker as, "they lived in squares, painted in circles and loved in triangles". Duncan Grant had relationships with people of different genders, today the words we use for this include bisexual and pansexual. The way that the Bloomsbury group lived can be desribed as Queer in its disregard for rigid societal norms. Duncan Grant created this lithograph print with his partner Vanessa Bell who was the sister of Virgina Woolf another famous member of the group. Duncan Grant was living and working as an artist during a time when it was illegal to have same sex relationships and so he could not speak and act freely openly in society. Duncan Grant, Hawk, 1948. Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London. © the artist

Many LGBTQIA+ people find freedom from rigid structures via the naural world. Animals and especially birds in flight are a powerful symbol of freedom. What represents freedom to you? It could be an animal, something you do that makes you feel free, or it could be a place you have visited or would like to visit. Try and draw it in the box here or on a seperate sheet.

Artworks you wish to add to the Seen exhibition can be added to the community section near the ‘Seen’ neon light or shared via social media and added to the digital exhibiton by using #seen and tagging @newlynexchange

“Every young person deserves to see themselves, their family, and the full diversity of our world reflected in their curriculum.” - Stonewall www.stonewall.org.uk/

Family There are many different types of families which include every type of identity. A family could have one or a number of parents or carers of any gender or sexuality. It is never useful to assume a family consists of two heterosexual parents as a norm because it excludes so many different types of family. In Queer culture a family can also be made up of very close friends or a ‘chosen family’ and those who we find in our lives who support us and who see us for who we are.

Stonewall have spent more than 30 years working towards a world where all children and young people have access to an LGBTQ+ inclusive education. You can find some resources and lists from Stonewall here which can help everybody to teach and learn in a way that reflects our diverse society. - Best practise, toolkits and resources by Stonewall - LGBTQIA+ inclusive books for children and young people - Trans inclusive RSHE lesson packs

Michael Craig-Martin

“I have questioned about being gay and in relation to art. It’s obvious that I don’t do art in which the subject matter is identifiably gay. But I think that for anybody who is a creative person, being gay is a deep part — it’s not the only part — but it’s a deep part of one’s person, and that comes out in everything.” Kid’s Stuff 1-7 allows everyone to see themselves relected in the Seen exhibition. This conceptual artwork encourages reflection upon personal experience and transformation over a lifetime. Try writing your own reflections to the written prompts below the seven mirrors here:

Michael Craig-Martin, Kid’s Stuff 1-7 , 1973 Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © the artist

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PRIDE PRIDE

The Pride movement In 1970, pride and protest marches were held in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco around the first anniversary of Stonewall. In 1972 the first ever Pride march took place in London and today many towns and cities around the UK host their own Pride parades, protests and events. Hung from the ceiling of the Seen exhibition is the rainbow flag from Cornwall Pride. This flag was originally made by the Cornwall Pride community 14 years ago for the first Pride in Cornwall in Truro. Cornwall Pride was held in Truro until 2016 and then moved to Newquay in 2017. In 2018 the Cornwall Pride tour started, and in 2019 the flag was flown through 18 towns in two days. 2022 will be 15 years of Pride in Cornwall and 50 years of Pride in the UK. Why not help fly the flag in 2022! https://cornwallpride.org

Flags and symbols are very important within LGBTQIA+ communities. This selection of flags shows some of the main flags used today. There are many more in existence which cover a whole range of genders and sexualities. As with the terminology used to describe our identities the design of these flags is ever-changing.

LGBTQIA+ / Pride

Transgender (Trans Pride)

LGBTQIA+ / Pride +

Agender

Progress Pride flag

Asexual

Straight Ally

Demigender

Lesbian

Bisexual

Non-binary

Lesbian

Genderqueer

Genderfluid

Intersex

Pansexual

Polysexual

Demisexual

Demigirl

Demiboy

Howard Hodgkin Howard Hodgkin describes his paintings as representational pictures of emotional situations. For his 2011 Olympic print Hodgkin created Swimming – a deep, swirling mass of blue flooding across the page. The fluidity of the brushstrokes perfectly captures the movement of water and the sensation of swimming.* Hodgkin uses colour to trigger emotion and physical sensations. Can you choose colours inspired by the flags, or by something that connects to your emotions, or a physical sensation to make a colourful seascape of your own using the line drawing on the next page?

*https://artscouncilcollection.org.uk/artwork/swimming

GENDER DIVERSITY The Intercom Trust have produced a talk on ‘Gender Variance in History’ with the aim of exploring and reflecting upon gender identity from a global perspective in order to better understand colonialism, cultural identities and legislation in relation to transphobia. The Intercom Trust hopes this talk will increase abilities to talk about trans identities and history, to be better able to support people in feeling less alone, and more connected with a rich cultural heritage. You can find the document for this talk linked here or you can contact Intercom Trust about their resources via the website. Intercom Trust run a gender identity family day to help families discuss gender identity in order to offer support. www.intercomtrust.org.uk/

P. Staff The Prince of Homburg, 2019 is based on Heinrich von Kleist’s play of the same title. Written in 1810 but set in 1675, Kleist’s drama begins with a disoriented prince sleepwalking through his royal gardens, and soon develops into a nightmarish narrative that questions the limits of state control versus individual freedom. Staff’s video cuts together a narration of Kleist’s play with interviews, found footage, hand-painted animation and song. In a series of fragmented ‘daytime’ sequences, a range of artists, writers and performers reflect on contemporary queer and trans identity and its proximity to desire and violence.* * www.artscouncilcollection.org.uk/artwork/prince-homburg

You can find this film situated at the back of the exhibition space. Can you learn something new about Queer and Trans identity by listening to the individuals in P. Staff’s The Prince of Homburg? Content warning - film contains swearing and violent language

Flo Brooks The work of Flo Brooks depicts intricate scenes in acrylic paint on cut out boards paired with fluid abstract shapes. His painting Butts Only (that’s the sound that lonely makes) is from his Scrubbers series which follows a fictional commercial cleaning company as they work their way through a number of institutional spaces. “I was thinking a lot about the kinds of hygienic spaces I’ve traversed through my own hormone transition and mental health support, the ways these spaces are designed to clean, conceal and correct what’s considered effluent, abnormal or other, and how certain practices are rewarded, whilst others chastised. Rather than employing autobiography though, I wanted to evoke a kind of trans-ness and queer-ness through metaphor, visual pun and irony, provoking and belittling symbols of normativity and hygiene found within these spaces, particularly those associated with gender and sex.” * *https://elephant.art/flo-brooks/

Flo Brooks, Butts Only (that’s the sound that lonely makes), 2018 Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London. © the artist

By looking closely, see what objects, text and details can give you insight into the ﬁctional characters lives within the painting. What can you see within the painting which could be a metaphor for something else?

Links / Resources / Further reading

Full Glossary of LGBTQIA+ terms by Stonewall https://www.stonewall.org.uk/help-advice/faqs-and-glossary/list-lgbtq-terms The Intercom Trust https://www.intercomtrust.org.uk Cornwall Pride https://cornwallpride.org Decoder www.decoderart.com Mermaids (helping gender-diverse kids, young people and their families since 1995) https://mermaidsuk.org.uk Queer Kernow https://queerkernow.co.uk

This resource is created by artist-led LGBTQIA+ organisation Decoder expanding the Queer Gaze from West Cornwall. Decoder produces exhibitions, events, and resources from a non-binary perspective. Seen Collective is made up of young LGBT+ people across Cornwall including those from groups such as Intercom Trust’s ‘Young and Yourself’.

Intercom Trust is a lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans+ charity working across Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and the wider South West, providing support, training and lunch time LGBT+ groups across a number of Cornwall schools. Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange is an educational arts charity, an Arts Council England National Portfolio organisation and an Arts Council Collection National Partner. For more than 125 years, Newlyn Art Gallery has been bringing the best in contemporary art to audiences in the South West. The Arts Council Collection is the most widely circulated national loan collection of modern and contemporary British art and is managed by Southbank Centre, London on behalf of Arts Council England.