arts &life style

By Reece James

Olivia Boileau

For many years, art by queer people has often been misinterpreted, due to the heteronormative practice of museum and gallery displays. The Whitworth, located on Oxford Road, is trying to change this. As part of an ongoing project, titled Queering the Whitworth, the gallery has looked through their collections and applied a ‘queer lens’, with the aim to rediscover missed LGBTQIA+ narratives and historical omissions. The result of this rediscovery has been the creation of the new exhibition (Un)Defining Queer.

The exhibition has been developed and led by an intersectional group of participants, all identifying under the LGBTQIA+ umbrella. It features around 70 pieces in total, featuring exhibits from the Whitworth’s own collection, as well as some loaned works from other artists. The exhibition features a variety of art styles, including illustrations, clothing, quilting, screen printing, written pieces and so on. Artists featured include, Ajamu X, Matthew Bamber, Pearl Alcock, Toyohara Kunichika and Sarah-Joy Ford to name just a few. There are also written commentaries, from some of the project participants, featured amongst the exhibit, providing some modern-day context and personal reflections.

The exhibition is split into five main themes; ‘Performativity’ focuses on the ways in which people play around with, explore and share their queer identities. For example, one piece in this section that really stood out were some illustration proofs by Walter Crane for Little Red Riding Hood, with the illustrations really highlighting the need to view art with a queer lens. What to some people, may just appear to be a drawing of the Wolf, looking at itself in the mirror whilst wearing Grandma’s clothing, could also be interpreted as an exploration of gender identity. Project participant, Bria Cotton, writes in the exhibition, explaining the relatability of the images, as the Wolf looks upon itself in shock, similarly to when they themselves had explored gender expression through clothing.

Another theme focuses on ‘Mythology’, which highlights the importance of historical artwork, and often depicts figures from myths and legends, as being some of the earliest representations of queerness and same-sex intimacy. One example of this is Marcantonio Raimondi’s engraving of ‘Jupiter Embracing Cupid’, which originates from the early 1500s and depicts the two male figures in a kiss. One contributor shares that their first ever experience of seeing a same-sex kiss was in a book about art history, due to the lack of queer representation as they were growing up.

A prevalent theme is the ‘Chosen Family’, a term which originates from the days at the height of the AIDS epidemic, in which younger queer people would look to older queer people for care and advice. The art in this section explores how queer people often choose their own family and support networks, often in the face of rejection and stigma. ‘Queer Desire’ challenges the notion of the ‘male gaze’ and the way that things are often depicted to meet the desires of the straight man. Instead, this section explores how queer people have used art to express their own experiences of desire. Finally, ‘Activism’ looks at how art depicts LGBTQIA+ rights, exploring how it has been used to fight and spread awareness.

The exhibition also invites visitors to contribute to their ‘queer glossary’, helping provide more nuanced and up-to-date definitions of queer terminology. This considers the fact that a lot of the definitions used to describe queer people today did not exist at the time when some of the artworks were created.

(Un)Defining Queer is a joyous exploration and celebration of queer people, uncovering their lives and struggles, as well as focusing on their communities, from ancient history to modern day life. It highlights the work of queer artists and displays their creations in a way that hasn’t been done before, honouring their queer expression.

(Un)Defining Queer is on display until December 3rd, 2023, and is free to visit. For more information about the exhibition or the Queering The Whitworth project please visithttps://www.whitworth.manchester.ac.uk/ https://queeringthewhitworth.wordpress.com/

The Whitworth can be found at-

The Whitworth, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester

M15 6ER