Portfolio: Hannah Quinlan & Rosie Hastings

17/07/16
Portfolio: Hannah Quinlan & Rosie Hastings

See the full portfolio with more images in the August 2016 print issue of DIVA magazine
Alongside the artists' response to the Orlando shootings online here

Portfolio: Anya Gallaccio

01/07/16
Portfolio: Anya Gallaccio

Published in the July 2016 print issue of DIVA magazine

Portfolio: Sidsel Meineche Hansen

23/03/16
Portfolio: Sidsel Meineche Hansen

Sidsel Meineche Hansen: SECOND SEX WAR

Gasworks, London

17 March – 29 May 2016

“I would like to either abolish gender or multiply it beyond the binary, which would equate to the same thing,” says Danish-born, London-based artist Sidsel Meineche Hansen, whose current exhibition, SECOND SEX WAR, explores how this concept might be (re)produced in virtual adult entertainment.

Among other things, a new animated video, presented on Oculus Rift virtual reality headsets, considers the question of what post-human sex and sexuality might be like. Visitors take on the role of the avatar EVA v3.0 to experience this firsthand. Meineche Hansen is, in part, motivated by the feminist “sex wars” of the late 70s/early 80s, which politicised the concept and representation of female sexuality and led to a split of the feminist movement into anti-pornography and anti-censorship camps. Her own attitude towards pornography is unresolved, but her work debatably falls into the category of 3D porn. But is pornography art? “Sure, if you say it’s art, it’s art,” Meineche Hansen replies nonchalantly.

Alongside the video, Meineche Hansen is displaying a series of polymer clay sculptures and reliefs. Her practice is research-led and a series of seminars, planned for during SECOND SEX WAR, will look at the overlap between pornography and body horror. Although entrenched in academic discourse, they will be open to all. As for the exhibition, however, parental discretion is advised!

Published in the April print issue of DIVA magazine

Review of Through a Queer Lens: Portraits of LGBTQ Jews at the Jewish Museum London

Through a Queer Lens: Portraits of LGBTQ Jews

Jewish Museum London

11 February – 17 April 2016

LGBT History Month might be over, but there's still time to visit the Jewish Museum in Camden to see a vibrant celebration of LGBTQ Jewish life in the UK.

Through a Queer Lens is a photographic project co-ordinated by trans activist Surat-Shaan Knan and shot by black queer artist Ajamu on his camera, which he affectionately calls Bessie, after the bisexual African-American jazz and blues singer, Bessie Smith. Hanging in the entrance hall, on bright red walls, the 20 striking large format black and white portraits greet everyone, for free, as they queue to buy their tickets.

The individuals featured all identify, in one way or another, as Jewish and LGBTQ. There are activists, artists, rabbis and journalists. Lisa Gornick is there, the writer and director of three feature films, including ‘Do I Love You?’, ‘Tick Tock Lullaby’ and the forthcoming ‘The Book of Gabrielle’; Benjamin Cohen, chief executive of PinkNews and co-founder of the cross-party Out4Marriage campaign group is too; so is Rabbi Elli Tikvah Sarah, a longstanding campaigner for equal marriage.

Alongside each portrait is a brief statement about who the person is and, in some instances, how they identify and what being LGBTQ and Jewish means to them. Performer Rachel Mars, for example, describes having Judaism “written on her face” without her consent: “I have Jewish face #4 – you might know it. Your cousin/sister/aunt/old school friend is probably rocking it right now too”. She chooses to celebrate her grandmother for her acceptance and support – in her 90s – when she would even help Rachel with partner decisions. “[She] was about fairness, joy, kindness and a bit of muscle when necessary.” Sharing this and so many other anecdotes will hopefully make visitors question their own reactions and responses to family members and friends, when their sexuality perhaps doesn’t fall within the accepted mainstream.

As an accompaniment to the main exhibition, an iPad contains many further photographs (not by Ajamu) and stories from LGBTQ individuals of all different faiths. “If we all had the opportunity to live how we want to live, be who we want to be, have the freedom to express ourselves and follow religion or faith as we are meant to without delving into the negative aspects,” writes Khakan Qureshi, “what would we do? We would LOVE.” It sounds simple – and, really, it is. This exhibition includes just a small cross-section of LGBTQ Jews, but, even so, it is apparent how each individual is just that: an individual. No two subjects identify in the same way. But by accepting this, and loving one another anyway, we can celebrate this diversity and be proud of it. As the voices on these walls cry out: “We're here, we’re queer – and we’re visible!”

 www.jewishmuseum.org.uk

Image:

Lisa Gornick by Ajamu

Also publish at DIVA online

Portfolio: Maya Chowdhry

19/02/16

Portfolio: Maya Chowdhry

“I’m an activist and an artist,” explains Maya Chowdhry. “Both are equally important to me: art is one way I’m an activist.” Integral to all her work – be it written or visual, installation or digital – is that the audience becomes involved in some way. “Through this interaction people become activated to do something, an action that contributes to changing the world for the better.”

Her recent work, Ripple, produced for GFEST in collaboration with Sarah Hymas, comprises three sculptures, made from paper collage, that link with an app, allowing the audience to hear poems in English, Urdu and Bengali. The piece explores the impact of climate change, provoking questions, while simultaneously giving the audience an aesthetically pleasing lyrical experience. It was recently short-listed for a 2015 Dot Award, given to a writer of fiction, creative non-fiction or poetry to develop a new work using the web and digital technology in imaginative and collaborative ways.

While much of Chowdhry’s work centres on her identity as an Asian lesbian, it reaches much further, speaking of themes that touch us all. “My sexuality can’t be extricated from who I am. My sister always says: ‘Oh, here’s another piece about identity,’ even when the work appears, to me, to not be about my identity! I once got feedback on a short film I wrote about reincarnation saying it had too many issues in it, ie. the central character was an Asian lesbian. I argued that it was a film about love transcending life and death, but to no avail. Now I make the work I want to make, it’s a platform to communicate to the world what I need to say. It’s still a problem if producers and funders pigeonhole me and my work, but I carry on regardless.”

http://interactiveartist.org

http://mayachowdhry.me.uk/ripple/

See the full portfolio in the March 2016 print issue of DIVA magazine

Portfolio: Liz Atkin

22/01/16

Portfolio: Liz Atkin

“I was pushing up from the bottom of the bath and the oily, inky water was swirling around me like liquor. It was such a perfect way for me to try to get that sickly, horrible feeling, that was in my body at the time, out into something visual.” In 2014, Liz Atkin suffered a 10-month bout of severe depression. An artist, who was already using her work to help combat her life-long battle with Compulsive Skin Picking (CSP), she was able, once more, to turn to creativity as a means of survival. “It enabled me to pull myself back to health,” she reflects. The resulting works, including Curdled (2014), were shown at ORTUS, for Bethlem Gallery, as part of the Anxiety Festival that year.

For Atkin, her chest and collarbone are particularly significant sites, since this is where she used to pick the most – up to eight hours a day sitting in front of a mirror, picking until she bled. Works like Blue (2014) revisit this violent battleground, touching it gently with chalk dusk on her fingertips. The fact that the colours conjure up a bruise is, of course, no coincidence.

Atkin has recently returned from a week-long trip to UCLA, where she was invited to exhibit her artwork and speak to medical students and staff about her lived experience of CSP, her artwork and her recovery.

“I don’t really talk in terms of being cured because it’s something I live with every day,” she says. “It’s something I’ve done for more than 25 years and my body knows skin picking better than anything. I have to work really hard for it not to happen and art helps. I’m always taking photos on my phone or drawing on the tube. It keeps me centred, focused and calm. It’s mindfulness in action.

“6-8% of the population are said to suffer from some form of body-focused repetitive behaviour, be that skin picking, hair pulling or a physical tick, but CSP is very misunderstood. I have a duty to tell the truth because every time I do so I am destigmatising it. It is not just a personal story, it becomes something that is human and universal.”

Liz Atkin is showing some work as part of LETTING IN THE LIGHT, a temporary lightbox installation organised by Daily Life Ltd in collaboration with Outside In and Bethlem Gallery at Gerry Raffles Square, E15, until the end of March.

lizatkin.com

Image:

Liz Atkin

Curdled

2014

© the artist

See the full portfolio in the February 2016 print issue of DIVA magazine