Pride at the South Bank: Kiss My Genders Exhibition
In the lead up to London Pride, an exhibition that explores and celebrates gender fluidity opens at the Southbank Centre. Kiss My Genders includes works by more than 30 international artists spanning the last half century that are presented in a range of different media.
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| At her Dream's Edge 2019, Chitra Ganesh (forground) & Somnyama Ngonyama: Hail the Dark Lioness 2012-present, Zanele Muholi (background) |
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| Tejal Shah |
Coinciding with Pride in London 2019, which takes place on 6th July, Kiss My Genders opens as the South Bank is awash in the rainbow colours of the Pride flag. The exhibition features artists who's work challenges entrenched gender narratives, exploring identity outside the binary of male and female, the creation of queer spaces and LGBTQ+ history. Across both floors of the Hayward Gallery, the exhibits take shape in a variety of forms, such as photography, paintings, mural, video, audio, sculpture and textile. The works range from serious to playful; poignant to humorous. Overall the atmosphere is celebratory but there is also a conscious sense of activism.
The exhibition has opened at a time when the topic of gender fluidity has come to the fore of mainstream society, and at a time when hate crime against LGBTQ+ people is still rife in the UK and all around the world. As this exhibition attests, 'unconventional' expressions of identify and gender have been explored in art and been the experience of people's lives for many many years.
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| Candy Darling on Her Deathbed 1973, Peter Hujar |
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| John Heys in Lana Turner’s Gown (I) 1979, Peter Hujar |
The sea, perhaps the definition of fluidity, is included multiple times in the exhibition. Following this theme are photos of the Hudson River in New York by Peter Hujar, which are alongside his best-known photo Candy Darling on Her Deathbed, a portrait of the American transgender actress who was part of Andy Warhols' underground scene. Other works in this section reflect changes in society that arose from feminist and gay rights movements but also cultural movements, such as disco, punk and glam rock in the 60s and 70s.
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Silent, 2016, Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenz
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The photos in this post do not do the exhibition justice, as a lot of the exhibits are AV installations. The raw, visceral video 'Something for the Boys' by Hannah Quinlan and Rosie Hastings is particularly striking. The video is melancholic; a reaction, as the artists state, to the 'closure of queer spaces'. The above photo of the AV piece by Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenz, is called Silent and explores the ambiguity of silent acts.
Photographs feature prominently in this exhibition, perhaps as this is the prime weapon of documenting subcultures; the 'unseen'. There are also a number of paintings and sculptures, mostly in the upper gallery, as seen in the below three images.
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| Ajamu |
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| Christina Quarles |
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| Flo Brooks |
The Southbank Centre's Hayward Gallery is the perfect exhibition host. This gallery tends not to cram exhibits into the space and the set-works are simple, leaving open sections that allow you to fully absorb the material. My overriding impression of this exhibition is that the pieces on display reveal what it is to be human, divulge a real sense of LBGTQ+ history and, crucially, explore why we require an unfixed notion of gender.
To celebrate Pride, this Saturday (6th July) Kiss My Genders is free entry 11am-7pm!
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| Hayward Gallery |
* This exhibition closes on the 8th September 2019
Exhibition website:
Pride in London: