Queer/in/g Nature, curated by the Socially Engaged Art Salon is a group exhibition of LGBTQ+ artists, depicts provocative negotiations with the natural world, with the Western and heteronormative concepts of “nature” or “the natural”, and the environmental crisis. The exhibition, at the Ledward Centre is part of Brighton Festival.
The exhibition includes photography, short films, digital art, documentation of queer interventions in the countryside and a large-scale immersive room installation.
The participating artists do not subscribe to the dichotomy of Nature/Artificial and shy away from heteronormative ideas of LGBTQ+ identities as artificial and alien to the natural world. Some of the work in the exhibition critiques the Western quantification and standardization of bodies which historically has led to commodification and even to genocides.
The countryside is used by some of the artists as a place to escape prescribed identities and acceptable codes of behavior. Other artists use bodies, retuals and other physical interventions to queer nature.
Be prepared to be challenged and tantalized.
The Socially Engaged Art Salon is an LGBTQ+, BPOC artists’ led organization that curates exhibitions and art events at the Ledward Centre and the BMECP.
Participating artists: Amber Akaunu & Elliss Thomposn, Brody Mace-Hopkins & Raechel Teitelbaum, Gil Mualem-Doron (with Lya Abdou Issa (AKA BlkDimondDance) & Liam King [AKA 7kid] & Soma Taylor-Patel (AKA 8SZN), Luc(e) Raesmith, Ludo Foster, Omer Ga’ash, Sarah Connell, Simon Olmetti, Tayo Adekunle.
The exhibition opening on the 7th of May (3pm-7pm) will include a free live dance performance by Lya Abdou Issa (AKA BlkDimondDance) in “Interweaving Spaces', a large-scale immersive installation by the artist Gil Mualem-Doron. The performance will commence at 5-5:30pm.
Tickets are completely free although limited so please book to ensure a space through Eventbrite here.