Speak Out

Speak Out. A Town Meeting on the Queer State-of-the-Art at Brighton Museum & Gallery.

The daring artists Ajamu X, Campbell X, Sadie Lee, Brian Lobel, Eddie Peake, Sarah Pucill, and James Richards will discuss their take on queer sexuality, intimacy, love and race in twenty-first century Britain.

Through the artists' presentations of their lives and work, we intend to explore the queer state of the art and the queer mentality in British visual culture. Participating artists include Sadie Lee, known for her paintings of lesbian and transgender characters, Ajamu X, exhibiting photographs of black gay male sexuality, Eddie Peake, a performance artist portraying male nudity, Sarah Pucill, whose images of queer femininity are very moving, James Richard, a video artist whose installations deal with intimate subject matter, Campbell X celebrated for films about black lesbian identity and Brian Lobel, who creates bold performances about our bodies.

There is a renewal of interest in queer issues -- nationally and internationally -- regarding civil rights, anti-discrimination laws and same-sex marriage. At the same time, new views and experiences of sexuality, such as sexual and gender fluidity, and sexual relationships will be debated and contested. The artists deal with these questions in their works which reflect on the historical processes that brought us to this point of rupture. They experiment with images of male, female and transgender eroticism, in the psyche and through embodiment, which express queer pleasure and pain. Through their portraits and self-portraits they examine our contemporary sense of the complexities of the self and its sensibilities.

At the present moment of economic crisis, gripped as we are by the forces of social and political conservatism, we need more activism in queer politics and creativity in queer art. The event will be a platform for thinking about queer issues and creating a new art to bring about a fairer society for queer culture.

This event is curated by Pawel Leszkowicz and co-organised by the Brighton Museum and Art Gallery (Jenny Lund) and the University of Sussex’s Centre for Visual Fields John David Rhodes and Centre for the Study of Sexual Dissidence - Rachel O'Connell.