Shed Project
Queer Lives and Art: Radical Textiles
Queer Lives and Art: Radical Textiles was an exhibition and public programme that marked the 50th anniversary of Pride in London. The project was funded by Wandsworth Arts Fringe (10 - 26 June 2022) and Arts Council England.
QLAA explored queer expression in textile art as a form of radicality and resistance over the past half-century. Textile art is a mode of slow-production with the ability to tell personal narratives and bring people together. Forms of knotting, knitting and weaving, where single strands come to form a wider whole, therefore become a powerful expression of solidarity. Held at Woodfield Pavilion, a local community centre on Tooting Common,QLAA aimed to generate intergenerational exchange and was developed in consultation with a number of South London LGBTQIA+ organisations.
This was my final project with Shed Project. I contributed during conception and planning stages. I gained experience writing successful funding applications and building community partnerships. Below are some photographs showing how QLAA came together.
One of the exhibited artworks will be selected from an Open Call.
Shed Project commissioned the workshop leaders to produce an online guide to make the project as accessible as possible
Two workshop participants holding their quilt squares
An unveiling event reunited participants with their their patches, sewn together in solidarity
Artists Al Hill and Eleanor West speak to members of Shed about one of their previous quilts, exhibited at QLAA