A probe into the waltzing tension between toughness and tenderness
21 – 25 February 2023
Private View Wednesday 22nd February
Outer shells of leather and metal rub against warm flesh in the corners of the early hours. This armour cracks to unveil a gentle, throbbing heart. Pinkness role plays a devilish charm, soft at first, later, hard as stone.
This collective exhibition of queer artists, celebrates the building of a culture around symbols of identity and ways of being. Red-lips, fluidity, fire, softness, caress, tight, kiss, scratch, cold, leather, pumping, flesh, breeze. Collaging a sense of self and community within contradictions and between binaries..
Exhibiting Artists include: Cris Volpe, Hanon, Imogen Cleverley, Jesse Glazzard, Jody Evans, Josiah Moktar, Juliusz Grabianski, Kia Matanky-Becker, Maria Mautino, Maite de Orbe, Jessie Patrick-Hooper, Meg Vaughan, Annalisa Hayes, Eleanor Daly, Martha Summers
“We are stone, our limits and boundaries not just to keep others out but to keep ourselves in.
Beach stones picked up and warmed in the palm,
ice melting slowly and all of a sudden too fast,
liquid, merging with each other into an indistinguishable sea, waves breaking on the shore of hatred.”
Worn, embodied, and played. Toughness in the subtleties of interaction, gaze and recognition, as a shield, a message, a way of dressing, an invitation. Tenderness as the warm embrace of whispering to a lover, a stranger, a friend – I see you, you can be safe here. An inner visceral warm space. A nurturing cocoon. In learning to choose kindness over hate.
Coding and flagging, not deleted, bodies not censored, pleasure not determined, love not criminalized. Originally inspired by poetry on queer relationships/erotica, this group exhibition responds to (self?) identification through sculpture, digital art, photography, spoken word, poetry, painting, video and installations.
“Toughened, turning the other cheek, and turning it again to receive a lover’s kiss,
choose for tonight, tough or tender, and choose again in the morning.
knowing that you can see through the act.
Leather cracks in the tender crevices
all my strength to hold you down and to hold you up.”
