A Love Letter Exhibition
Post-Grad Community Stories | 09 March 2022
This piece is best read in its published form with images here.
An interactive event hosted by the Arts SU celebrating LGBTQIA+ History Month swiftly warmed up the crisp February afternoon as bustling conversations sprouted between students and staff by the eye-catching display at the main entrance of King’s Cross. The curious onlookers have wandered through to engage in conversation with the three selected UAL students and artists: Leonidas Liolios, Poppy Jasmine Hawkes, and Georgia Vincent - celebrating their stories and research through their unique practices in being part of the LGBTQIA+ community.
visible: a love letter was an invitation for anyone and everyone to engage as much or as little in joining the conversation, a wonderful chance for all to learn about a new perspective and to perhaps even have their ideals challenged through the safe space created.
The striking display immediately piques interest: a vibrant tapestry piece drapes invitingly in all its excitement, with its curious suggestions of biological life, before your eyes brush across to an unapologetically renditioned zine, boldly stacked for your enjoyment and intrigue; then finally a fluid wash of baby pink declares itself into view, the statement hue coating over a small half-open closet containing even smaller, intimate publications that surely were born to reveal something more.
I had the pleasure of being one of those curious onlookers that engaged in conversation with the artists. Sitting down first with Georgia Vincent, we talked by the impressive mountain of fabrics and materials that have come from Georgia’s own home, now given a renewed life at that very table.
I recall the description of her MA thesis project and tapestry workshop:
“Life's Queer Tapestry is a culmination of The Pleasure inQueery Project, which has been examining and querying human relationships to pleasure under patriarchal extractivist capitalist systems, through a queer ecological lense. Come and participate in Life’s Queer Tapestry – an ongoing co-created tapestry inviting everyone to identify and craft an image that represents their own unique queer ecology, while discussing pathways to pleasure, and pleasure as activism under extractivist capitalism. During the session each participant will create a fabric tile that will become a part of Life’s Queer Tapestry; a growing woven storyboard for you to share in and on. No previous crafting skills or materials necessary,”
Being in this open environment allowed me to ask more about Georgia’s fascinating and vital research. The conversation is as follows:
Me: I remember taking an embroidery course and finding it hard to do the stitches neatly..
Georgia: ..but I like the messy nature of it! with queer ecology as well, it’s all about that isn’t it? Life is messy, unpredictable, and varied...
Me: How would you explain queer ecology to someone who has never heard of the term?
Georgia: I think, primarily, what it’s doing is looking at the natural abundance and diversity of the beyond human and living systems, so whether that’s plants, or animals... and coming at it in a very ecological, scientific stance, studying their behaviours...I think it was founded in this amalgamation of ecology and queer theory. I think the goal, as a rebuke to really homophobic, but also persistent idea that to be queer or, to be gay is this kind of, against nature or unnatural thing and, men and women were designed to be put together to procreate, and it’s just like, well, that’s not true. It’s not true with our plant ancestors, it’s not true with people - and here’s the science to substantiate and support that.
So, I think that’s slightly anthropomorphising the modern human, it’s more a really beautiful example of that, and I think if you go deeper, you hit a level where you’re like - what can we learn, from plants for example? Plants have been around, and survived multiple climate catastrophes. If you go into the forest bed, you have these amazing mycelium and other really intelligent networks where the survival of the entire ecosystem is dependent on mutual aid and support.. and if there’s an invasive species/plants/animals around them, they share that information, so even if they’re struck down, they’re passing on that information so the others can defend themselves. In the time of the climate catastrophe, moving away from the ‘human-first, human-only, we know the way’ mentality - taking a step back and saying, none of this has panned out very well! What can we learn and what lies in that future? I think that was something I was really curious about and wanted to dive into, for both personal and academic reasons.
I was also reading Adrienne Maree Brown’s Pleasure Activism. “Desire is a force of nature that is ontologically imminent to all life,”. It propels us and moves us forward beyond any kind of binary thinking or social order. It brings in this idea, especially as a queer person, looking into the history of repression/sexual repression, the violence that can be born from that, and our fear of our sex and our erotic knowledge - and the power of erotic knowledge, how it shouldn’t be restricted to the bedroom - but people try and restrict it to the bedroom to try and contain what I think can unleash in someone, the power of getting in touch with your desires and what it is you want from life.
The power of that desire and to demand more, and I think for women, femmes, women - identifying people, most of the queer community, and anyone who’s living under systems of oppression... it can be a really powerful tool.
Me: so you are using this tapestry workshop to make your research accessible to the public?
Georgia: I wanted to bring queer ecology specifically out of the closed doors of academia, out to people. I think the project in general was a way for me to take everything I learnt on the masters and offer it, that’s why I brought all the documentation/ resources. I really enjoy craftivism movements. I wanted to bring some activism into it, some up skilling, idea of maintenance and repair... so the tapestry is made out of all my old clothes and salvaged materials.
The main takeaway from the workshop, is actually just having the space and time, to talk about pleasure, in today’s really productivity-focused society was a really nice thing, and maybe actually the work just needs to start there. so thought was a way we could gather and make something really beautiful together. Got it started with the ‘life’s queer’ tapestry, everything else made by participants, we can sit down, introduce you to the themes of the project.. when I started running workshops, should I just be entering queer and marginalised communities? but I actually feel like - how racism is a white person’s problem, like they need to do the work? so I’d really love more cis/hetero people to come in and participate and discuss this because again .. they’re the people.. I feel like queer/queer-leaning folk are more - if not familiar with queer ecology - live in a more accepting and tolerant way. Ironically I had a lot of queer friends contribute to it.. actually need more cis/het people coming in and see if their ideas/pre-notions of what queerness is are being challenged.
As participants joined the table to make their own creations, Georgia shared some of the queer life found in the natural world. In a fox den, up to 90% of the female population can be non-procreative, and lesbian... and most of the men are bisexual. Hyena’s are non-binary, pirate fish are trans, avocado trees swap genders about 36 times a day and fungi have over 36,000 forms of gender and sexual representation...
“What if we lived in aworld where we could understand how fungal networks communicated with each other?”
Georgia proposed enthusiastically, a persevered glint in their eye.
Me: ..so you’re taking inspiration from nature and thinking about how their way of life can reflect through the human?
Georgia: Yeah, in queer ecology they talk a lot about anthropomorphising and taking what we want and applying to human systems. I think recognising the difference there is also okay, but I think definitely taking inspiration from, and learning from them is a massive learning curve - I think they’re doing life better than we are. They’ve been going longer! There’s more wisdom, mutual aid and care there, so I think it is deeply inspiring. And beautiful to look at as well. When you look at the climate crisis, I think personally maybe it’s gonna come down to adaption and remaining fluid, and I think that’s happening around gender and sexuality now... I think with gen z something like 66% in a recent poll don’t identify as heterosexual. They don’t see themselves as strictly any one thing.. which is really interesting to see.. and you see it happening more and more as we move down the generations. I think this idea of remaining fluid, adaptable and malleable is vital...
Me: Has the pleasure principle always been discussed with queer ecology ?
Georgia: No, that was just something I was looking into.. I didn’t make it up thought, it was very much there in their writing. I wanted the project to be activism inspired. For me it’s quite pleasurable to sit around and talk about these things with people and do it in a loving and open space where you can craft and be slow and gentle. For me that in and of itself, generally speaking of resistance - I think that’s what craftvism started off as as well, a gentle form of pleasure activism, but thinking about how to take that forward and what the project can become.
The charming posters outlined a bitesized overview of both queer ecology and the pleasure principle, as well as an introduction to the Life’s Queer Tapestry project, hung alongside useful prompts to get the participants reflecting on what their Queer ecology is.
With this new-found perspective of queer ecology it was amazing to find the project supported beside the other queer artists represented that afternoon. Exhibited beautifully alongside Georgia’s tapestry workshop was Poppy Jasmine Hawke’s display of STRAP - an engrossing zine dedicated to highlight lesbians in fashion when Poppy realised how little of them there are in the industry.
Poppy Jasmine Hawkes - Strap
Created by CSM Fashion Journalism student Poppy Jasmine Hawkes, Strap is a love letter to lesbian style. A zine dedicated to exploring and celebrating lesbian fashion, showcasing the excellence of lesbian and Queer talent within the arts. Find interviews from lesbian fashion designers such as Georgia Fallon of Dykesport, Arts students, and lesbian fashion historians, including award-winning writer Diana Souhami and Ellie Medhurst of Dressing Dykes.
Lesbians are not welcome in the fashion industry, Poppy said, because obviously the patriarchy comes into play so heavily here. ‘Where are the Lesbians in Fashion?’ the contents page echoes through its bold character, as the zine takes the reader through the insightful experiences shared by design students and young graduates navigating through the fashion system as a Lesbian. It is a total celebration of Lesbians in fashion, and an inspiring way to bring a small community together in this form - it’s a love letter to Lesbian talent and excellence.
You can purchase the zine and support Poppy on the Made in Arts London website.
Excited to dig in deeper into the baby pink presentation of Leonidas Liolios’ project, the spectator undergoes a precious handling of the small publication, held together by page numbers reflecting each year of Leonidas’ life growing up. It is a raw, brave, and captivating presentation of the multifaceted experiences of homosexuality - beautifully ending with the celebration of their homosexual identity. It is a tender, hopeful piece of art
to come out in this cathartic form.
Leonidas Liolios - Coming Out
Coming Out is a 25-pages-long publication mapping Leonidas’ experience of homosexuality with every page representing each year of his life. From being bullied, to coming out, and eventually celebrating his homosexuality in the army, the publication invites people to follow his journey and contribute to LGBTQIA+ causes in hope that things will be better for future generations of queer folk around the globe.
“What was cathartic about writing these homophobic slurs on the outside of the cabinet was the fact that the phrases are in Greek. Sometimes when you hear words in English, and you’re not English, it has no personal connection.. with these, I feel it.”
They touched on a very compelling point about the idea of a ‘carcass’. The bullying that happened when you’re younger, Leonidas explained, is like they’re coming into your space. When you’re coming out, there is this sort of ‘carcass’ that is left behind. Leonidas explained that they kind of cherish that residual shell after, as someone who has survived at least - being grateful for growing through those traumatic experiences. Now, Leonidas is able to revisit it without having a directly hurtful connection. As each page is turned, the reader grows with them through pain, trauma, and finally a powerful celebration. “I have led a life judged by the cover of a book that hadn’t been written yet...”
To give back to the community that has fought for gay rights so that their generation lives through less trauma that the one before it, all profits from “Coming Out” will go towards Stonewall UK, a non-profit organisation standing for LGBTQIA people everywhere.
Overseeing this wonderful event was Katie Hughes, Arts SU’s Art Programme Manager. I was interested in hearing about what they thought of the event, as it played out so swimmingly before our eyes. Their team works specifically on professional development for students, working with them to sell their artworks, organise exhibitions or events where students can network. “We won’t do anything unless students are learning something behind it,” Katie said passionately. “The fact that these artists today are getting more experience in running workshops and talking about their work, and creating their own little network despite not knowing each other before...” I could tell this event was as rewarding for Katie as it was for the selected artists. The team is always creating opportunities through events such as this one to make use of the diverse communities that exist in the lively fabric of UAL, providing connections for students who may not have had easy access to building a network that continues after they graduate.
It was truly inspiring to experience such a warm and supportive event organised by the Arts SU to celebrate LGBTQIA+ History Month - make sure to check out their website to catch upcoming events!
To end, I will place here a vital sentiment that Georgia reiterated in one of the many conversations that bloomed that afternoon:
“When you’re thinking about queer ecology, it is not just about sex and gender - [it’s] also about living together in a community and how that is done...”
Let us take inspiration from these perhaps new-found perspectives and cultivate value in how we can support each other during such uncertain times in each of our communities.
Thank you to the three artists, the Arts SU, and every single passerby that made this event so engaging and valuable from start to finish!