Gay Identities

This project builds on a documentary journey I began whilst at university in 2006. Birmingham has a large and vibrant lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) community and my initial work revolved around the local drag queen circuit. I was fascinated by the chameleon like nature of many of the people I met whilst researching the early work. In many ways, when socialising, they swapped one form of drag for another; for example, leather gear. I began to look round me at the multitude of different looks and fashions that were exclusive to the LGBT community and decided to explore these through my social documentary practice. My earlier work had been studio based and the second motivation for this work was to escape the artificiality of the studio to capture a more natural, environment based set of images and also increase my knowledge of photography techniques. Although the early studio work had captured the personality of the individual, the images lacked the context inherent in location photography.

My initial thought was to explore the dichotomy between people’s social persona and the image projected in their everyday lives, such as when at work or with family. In the case of LGBT people this seemed to be more extreme. Although homosexuality is much more acceptable in today’s society, historically many gay people have lived double lives with ‘underground’ social interaction. Even today, many people still feel unable to be ‘out’ in everyday lives through fear of abuse and attack, meaning the only places some people can feel truly comfortable is in the shared social spaces of the gay bars and clubs.

A brief history of gay identities

Various sub cultures and communities have grown up within the world wide gay community, especially since the early 1990s. It seems obvious that the Internet has fuelled a fragmentation and fundamentally altered the social landscapes of this community. Social interactions, which historically predominantly took place in bars, are now increasingly taking place online. A brief look at the history of Birmingham’s gay community shows a fairly insular community with most people wearing everyday fashion and identifying with the homogenous gay culture of the time, the only significant sub culture for many years being Leather and a small Drag scene. Today there are a multitude of sub cultures, which are not solely based around sexual interaction but also social interaction with like-minded people online and away from traditional ‘safe’ gay spaces such as bars and clubs. Bears, Club Kids, Drag, Skin, Twinks, Clones and Muscle are some of the more common groups, which have evolved in the last 15 years.

Participants

Social networking sites and the local gay press were used to seek models willing to participate and eventually six individuals were chosen to represent the various sub cultures identified within the broader LGBT community. Each participant was asked to complete a short questionnaire which posed a series of questions designed to challenge participants to think about their own identities. This was also aimed at stimulating a creative process in them when it came to thinking about the images we were working towards. They were also asked to think of suitable locations for their image to be taken after initial conversations about the project. Participants and how they self identified are as follows:

• Hilli (Femme Lesbian)

• Sam (Muscle Boy)

• Tom (Leather Man)

• Candy/Joe (Club Freak)

• Maria/Mark (Drag Queen)

• Simon (Bear)

The questions were as follows.

1. Which ‘scene’ or sub group do you choose to identify with? Examples include Clone / Bear/ Chav / Twink / Leather / Butch / Femme / Club / Skin/Muscle. If applicable, you can identify with more than one group or none at all.

2. When did you first identify with this group and why? Did you identify with any other groups beforehand or do you identify with multiple groups.

3. Does this group use dress codes as a means of identification or is a certain manner of dress prevalent? If so please describe?

4. Do you wear this dress code on a daily basis or only when interacting with members of your chosen sub groups?

5. Are members of your chosen sub group as diverse as the gay community in general, or does it tend to attract individuals from certain age groups, social classes or ethnic backgrounds?

6. Would you say your chosen identity / identities are purely sexual identities or do they provide access to wider social networks? Are there any particular characteristics of people who identify with your chosen group / groups?

7. Do you think the Internet has led to the rise of new sub cultures within gay and lesbian culture?

The process

Each set of images or image was a collaboration between the participants and myself; my aim was to direct the subject as little as possible. My early subjects were all performers and tended to be fairly natural in front of the camera. It was a great help for the participants to be in their own environments as this helped them to relax and, in turn, enable more naturalistic final pieces. As a studio trained photographer, the greatest challenge of this project was to work in natural settings, often with low light. Many of the environments the subjects chose to be photographed in were social spaces such as bars, with various light sources often creating imbalances in the images which had to be worked around in situ. The aim of the project was to create a set of natural looking images which, in contrast to my earlier work, were not heavily edited in post production. To this end, the images were only slightly enhanced in the digital ‘darkroom’ and only to adjust aspects such as tone and depth, or to convert to black and white. Research online, with regard to optimum camera settings in low light, and trial and error, have greatly added to my skill and knowledge base.

Interestingly, the original concept of two images did not fit with the experience of every participant; Hilli worked in gay bars and could literally be herself all the time. Tom, self identified ‘Leather Man’, had no fear of being identified as gay in everyday situations, “I was proud to be verbally abused in New Street, ‘fucking faggot’ – yes I am, do you have a problem with that?”

In conclusion, it has been fascinating to explore the identities of the community around me and through this process evolve my documentary practice. The gay and lesbian community is extremely diverse and the Internet has had a phenomenal impact on not only the social interactions and connections within it, but also on the range of social and sexually defined movements.

In 2008, we conducted a series of workshops at North Warwickshire & Hinckley College for a project called ‘Protest School’ – a day of protest orientated activities contextualised by the 40th anniversary of Mai 68. This project formed the basis of our action research application but made appropriate to the Black Country’s ‘Bread and Butter’ riots of the 18th century.

The ‘Bread and Butter’ riots occurred across the Black Country in the 18th century. These uprisings stemmed from the fluctuating cost and availability of staple foods. However, these protests weren’t simply a mob reaction and colliers and iron-workers developed a sophisticated means of protest. In 1816, unemployed colliers dragged wagons of Black Country coal by hand to London and Liverpool in an attempt to publicise their plight. What struck us about the ‘Bread and Butter’ riots was the unconventional – even modern – approach adopted by the colliers to protesting.

After familiarising ourselves with the Black Country as a social and cultural site, and starting to plan how a ‘Protest School’ would operate in the Black Country, we began to come up against problems. After a visit to the Black Country Living Museum (BCLM), site visits to Bilston and Wolverhampton and trips to local libraries, the core issue that kept surfacing was one of identity – i.e. we are not from the Black Country. To start teaching people from the Black Country about the Black Country risks the possibility of patronisation (this is our viewpoint in relation to our practice). Once you spend time in the Black Country or go to the BCLM you realise that its inhabitants are fiercely proud of their area, its history and traditions. We wouldn’t have felt comfortable placing ourselves in a position where we were effectively trying to teach people about their own heritage.

Consequently, we wanted to continue to use the context of the ‘Bread and Butter’ riots but in a less didactic manner. This change in direction was also determined by the current socio-economic climate, particularly the steady supply of stories in the media regarding the threat of food shortages. Therefore, the plan at this stage was to initiate a series of interventions in and around Birmingham and the Black Country that utilised the ’Bread and Butter’ riots as a context for exploring the potential threat of food shortages now in the West Midlands. We asked ourselves the question, “How would people cope now if food shortages became so extreme as to match those of 1816?” We began to develop a number of strategies, solutions and protests for coping with the imminent threat of food shortages that we planned to preview in the Black Country as a series of interventions into public spaces and situations.

But then the research took an unexpected twist when we met up with Dave Cox of the Black Country Society at a pub in Wolverhampton (he wrote the original article on the ‘Bread and Butter’ riots that we based our action research on). During this meeting, he told us something extraordinary which made us change direction completely. He said that there is a little known apocryphal tale connected to the ‘Bread and Butter’ riots that may be of interest to us. Upon the colliers reaching Henley-in-Arden, they were confronted by a government employed mob of hired thugs who ordered them to call off their protest and turn back. After a tense stand-off between, the colliers began to turn around to drag their wagons back to their Bilston base. But then an incredible event occurred. Robert Ringford, one of the wagon dragging colliers, turned and faced the government force and, walking towards them, he began to Morris dance. After several minutes, he was joined my several other colliers who joined him in his spontaneous dancing and then, before long, there were approximately 150 Morris dancing colliers facing the police. The Morris dancing colliers then began to slowly walk towards the police with the other colliers dragging the wagons of coal behind them. The government employed mob, unsure what to do in this situation, and unprepared for the colliers’ protest, began to retreat. This situation continued for 10 miles from Henley in Arden to Stratford upon Avon; the mob retreating as the Morris dancing colliers gradually advanced forward. At Stratford, the colliers were informed by police that they would be able to continue dragging their wagons of coal up to London as originally planned. The government mob was dispersed and the colliers continued on to London. Robert Ringford, through his spontaneous moment of Morris dance inspired protest, almost single-handedly fought back the mob and in doing so made his own special contribution to the history of protest.

We subsequently decided, largely because we thought it was such a phenomenal story, to try and re-create this event. The final project (not quite Jeremy Dellar’s Battle of Orgreave) is our own interpretation of the Morris dancing colliers’ march as a performance and a video. We are absolutely delighted with the final outcome, particularly because it has helped us to pinpoint aspects of our practice that we feel are successful. These include the way we collaborate and perform as a ‘double act’, the role of humour in engaging an audience and the absolute importance of high quality documentation.

Identifying the question

Stoke-on-Trent is a city in flux. Billions of pounds are due to be spent in the city over the next 20 years and this feels (at least for now) like an emptying out, as whole streets are demolished, communities dispersed.

As an artist and resident of this place, at this time, it is impossible to ignore the process of change. It seeps into your consciousness and eventually into your practice. I set out at the beginning of my action research to attempt to answer one question which seemed relevant and necessary. I wanted to know, from the people of the city: What does this city really need?

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Examining precedence

Over the last few years I have investigated and researched examples of artistic or cultural activity (operating within cities) in order to uncover the impact that art and culture might have on the regeneration of a city. At the beginning of my action research I broke these activities down into four types:

• Object impact (through a building or piece of work – the Guggenheim, Crosby Beach);

• Event impact (arts festivals or biennials – Harlech, Berlin);

• Award impact (Capital of Culture status – Liverpool, Bilbao, etc);

• Project impact (community collaboration projects – The Hidden Garden Project, Glasgow or In Certain Places, Preston).

I noticed that the more successful and sustainable projects were those that worked with the communities and people surrounding them – perhaps through consultation processes which happen from the outset to ensure the activity is bespoke in nature; or otherwise through projects which the communities nearby take to heart later.

My aim was to open a dialogue with the people of Stoke-on-Trent on what sort of initiatives, projects and activities they would like to see happening in the city and perhaps even to identify an idea for a project that would demonstrate culturally led regeneration.

How to answer a question

In the early stages of the questioning process, I created a postcard to give to the people of Stoke-on-Trent asking them to set out their ideas of what the city might need.

This led to the development of various statements about what this city needs, my favourite being ‘This City Needs a Hero’ and I had 300 badges made to spread the word.

Falling down rabbit holes

Towards the beginning of the programme I arranged to be interviewed by a fellow practitioner. The idea was that the interview could help to set out and explore my motives for engaging with the people of the city and the questions asked were:

• What is your mission?

• What are you keen to achieve?

• What would you like to convince the people of Stoke-on-Trent of?

The interesting thing about this long conversation was that it was meant to focus my intentions at the beginning of the project. What it actually did was petrify me into inaction. The process of examining my own motives and processes actually made me feel unsure and sent me into a period of quiet reflection (AKA artist’s block). In the long run this process of exploration, petrification and, later, action to unpick bad stitches has led to an enlightenment about my own artistic process. I now see that my questions as an artist happen publicly. My motives, intentions and mission are not fixed; they shape my actions as much as my actions shape them. I have realised that this flexibility and ability to affect, as well as be affected, is important to me.

Getting back on track

The good thing about rabbit holes is that some of them lead to Wonderland. Once I realised this, I was able to climb out in a new place. To understand what is needed it is often useful to understand what is already there, so I decided to become The Undercover Tourist and go to the Tourist Information Centre to see what they would tell me to do in the city. I learnt a number of things from my espionage:

• the city has no tour guide;

• tourists visiting the city generally miss out the city centre completely, preferring to visit the potteries factories which are scattered across the six towns;

• each person in the city has a different idea of what should be celebrated and what ignored.

Why don’t we have a tour guide in Stoke-on-Trent?

Cities employ tour guides to talk about the wealth of heritage, culture and beauty of a place. I decided to become The Official Tour Guide for Stoke-on-Trent but this tour guide would take the tourist to the sites of regeneration around the city, pointing out faults as well as beauty; offering up the city as a site for propositions – questioning, ‘who is this for?’, ‘what do we do with this?’, ‘why is this here?’. My tours show one artist’s response to a place in the hope that the participant may start to question in a similar way.

The emphasis of the tours was that we would talk about the city as a space for art and culture to exist, examining the gaps of a place and, instead of seeing gaping wounds, seeing creative spaces which can be filled.

The Tour

The tourists meet their guide in Cauldon Park, the neglected sister of Hanley Park, soon to be revived through the neighbouring college development. The tour guide leads the tourist towards the centre, from the South, crossing the brick desert which is the Tesco development site and up past the demolition zone that was once a cinema, in the heart of the cultural quarter. We zigzag through the streets and then up to the multistorey car park for the best 360° view of the city, back down past Stanley Matthews to the bus station and site of the planned East/West precinct. We end up at the last community pub in the centre, unfortunately placed in the middle of the clearance zone.

Where could this lead?

The Regeneration Tours are a starting point and are something that I intend to develop further. In the early stages of development are ‘The 1986 Garden Festival Tour’, which examines the remnants of one of the last big cultural projects in the city, and ‘The City Car Park Tour’ which leads the tourists around the city’s single most popular use of its land.

The realisation that has come from this period of action research is the importance of the questioning process that I am engaged with in the city and how this process necessarily involves other artists and citizens. To conclude, I set up an opportunity to discuss the questions raised and examined by the action research project with other practitioners. This necessitated the need to redefine what the question might be and led me to understand that the original question ‘What does this city really need?’ is too broad and big. A forum meeting was held where this and other questions were raised and the ensuing conversation demonstrated the need to investigate further.

And so I exit the action research in the same way that I entered, with a new question.

“What is the artist’s role in the changing city?”

Transitions – art and public transport

Through the action research I wanted to further explore my fascination with the transient, fluid and in-between character that various public transport spaces have in common – something that goes beyond their obvious function. I was interested in how the spaces in this particular context usually remain non-places (impersonal and undistinguished, unendowed with value); the time we occupy them becomes non-time (devoid of structure other than the itinerary of the travel itself); and how, when inhabiting them, we gladly shed our individual identities to become passengers, commuters and travellers, enjoying temporary anonymity.

In more practical terms, my research concerned possibilities for creating and disseminating art in public transport settings. For this part of my enquiry I decided to focus on investigating the wider context (looking at examples of artistic projects situated in public transport settings); developing my individual arts practice (researching and testing ideas for my own site – or people-specific arts project); and looking into potential ways of disseminating various art forms and projects in the public transport domain.

As a freelance artist working locally, nationally and internationally, I use public transport regularly and quite extensively, which proved very useful during the initial period of my research. Not only was I able to conduct plentiful observations of other people’s behaviour and my own feelings when using public transport, the hours spent in waiting rooms and departure lounges also provided me with the time to read numerous books on the subject by authors such as: Alain de Botton, Yi-Fu Tuan, Edward T. Hall and Marc Augé. Drawing on their studies of spaces, places and non-places I wrote a short essay on anthropological analyses of public transport sites.

The next phase of my research involved extensive study of examples of artworks inspired by, or created for, a public transport context. I studied existing partnerships between public transport companies and artists, as well as art galleries operating within public transport settings, and other artistic ventures happening on buses and trains, at train stations and airports. I was astounded by the large number and variety of projects and initiatives relevant to my research that I found in the process of this enquiry.

The abundance of material collected was one of the reasons why, half-way into the research period, I decided to share the results of my exploration with a wider audience and set up a public weblog to document the process. I intend to continue using the blog as a tool for developing further ideas.

Another important element of my research was consulting people that use public transport and other artists that have an interest in developing projects in this particular context. A survey that I conducted amongst (mostly local) commuters and artists was a huge success attracting over fifty respondents who shared their interesting, thought provoking opinions and ideas that I then compiled and published online.

Arranging meetings with local public transport companies to have an informal chat about my research and potential possibilities for collaboration with local artists, unfortunately, turned out to be unsuccessful within the time-scale of this research, despite the support of Longhouse.

However, what first seemed like a disadvantage soon turned out to be an exciting opportunity; a chance to try out a different artistic strategy. I decided for my final project to take the form of informal and subtle performative actions in public transport settings that did not require filling out forms or obtaining permits. This choice granted me a greater flexibility and allowed me to be independent in shaping the project. I also liked the idea of covert artistic interventions that would not be presented to the general public as artistic actions, but instead subtly challenge the usual behavioural norms and cause a certain amount of bafflement amongst the commuters in the spirit of Adrian Piper.

In the early stages of my research I produced some photographic work by doing a full circuit on the 11c bus and documenting the journey to reflect on the notion of the transitional. Later, I became interested in artistic strategies that were not necessarily planned or experienced as convivial, such as friendly gestures or gifts, but somewhat antagonistic and political – a move partly informed by my further academic research into various participation models as described by Nicolas Bourriaud, Claire Bishop or Grant H. Kester.

In this framework it was particularly tempting to address behaviours and situations that are controversial and not generally seen as positive but often encountered in public transport contexts: loud music on buses, forced proximity to strangers or the overwhelming presence of CCTV cameras. My reaction to these was a series of satirical public interventions.

One of the actions involved myself and seven other people simultaneously playing natural sounds on buses (including birdsong, crows, frogs and dogs barking) using mobile phones. Partly a performance, partly a temporary multi channel sound installation for buses, the project was aimed at questioning the unwritten codes of behaviour we tend to abide by as well as underlying class, age and racial tensions. Another intervention involved myself travelling across the West Midlands with a portable CCTV camera attached to my clothing in true sousveillance fashion (sousveillance means ‘to watch from below’ – inverse surveillance). Surprisingly this caused amusement amongst fellow passengers rather than more wary reactions.

The last stage of my research focused on investigating and collating the various ideas for dissemination of artworks in the public transport domain that go beyond the usual public art commissions with the primary aim of discouraging vandalism. This resource can hopefully be used in the future both by myself and by other artists interested in exploring this exciting yet challenging context for producing and placing contemporary art.

Undertaking the research has definitely resulted in my developing new ideas, working processes and approaches that I will be able to use in my future practice. Through realising the interventions, I grew more confident in relation to working on projects that utilise performance elements and take place in the public domain. The research also allowed me to further develop reflective thinking during all stages of the creative process.

www.alicjarogalska.co.uk
www.transitions-research.blogspot.com