The first Lucy Cavendish Pride SU art exhibit was a great success.
As part of LGBTQ+ History month, the Lucy Cavendish Pride Student Union celebrated queer expression with a wonderful art exhibition in College.
The exhibition took place on the 11th of February at the Nautilus Café. The event celebrated queer identities, personalities and expression with student art and musical performances, accompanied by delicious canapés and drinks.
Students could submit visual art, photography, poetry, stories, collages, video or music. Contributions are still available to see in the Café, and will then be printed in a book with all the artwork which you will be able to find in the library.
Lucy’s queer artwork was later displayed at the Cambridge Union Library.
Thank you to all the people who attended and to the artists, with all their meaningful contributions and beautiful performances, and to the amazing Leila Schaaf, Lucy's Student Union LGBTQ+ Officer for organising the exhibition.
Submissions included:
- Queer Expression in Music - This project explored a selection of music by composers who identified as LGBTQ and thus to raise awareness of their work. It aimed to cast a light on some glorious music, to enhance our understanding and appreciation of it, and it generally hoped to give some enjoyment to those who take time to listen to it. It included a few auditory extracts, and an introduction to their contexts and composers.
- Wounds - This piece documented a stage of the artist’s healing from top surgery. For many (but not all) trans people, surgery marks an important part of our transition. “Top surgery was something that I dreamed of having for so long, so for me, this piece is a celebration. I intended for this piece to remind cis people that something which on the surface seems violent, graphic and painful, was the greatest thing I have ever done to care for myself. Top surgery is bloody and painful, but for me, it wasn’t violent at all. It was an end to the violence of living in a body unsuited to me, and a victory over the violence of those who try to deny us lifesaving healthcare.”
- Lost in the moment - These lovers only have eyes for each other. The world spins around them but they don't notice it. Maybe there are people out there judging them, their love or sexuality but these people don't matter because they have each other. Lovers lost in the moment was inspired by a wedding photo of two women sharing their wedding kiss. This contribution celebrates how many queer people nowadays can legally marry keeping in mind that same-sex marriage was first legalized in the Netherlands in 2001. In addition, it is supposed to invite the audience into an intimate moment two women share celebrating and enjoying the beauties of touch.
- Ferris Wheels - This poem deals with the theme of time and, in particular, how time relates to social progression and regression: we cannot assume that our current reality will persist into the future, nor can we assume that any social progression we fight for will persist once we stop fighting for it. In this same vein, we cannot (and should not try to) erase the history of oppression in favour of a more comfortable world-view: the ‘aeon years’ in which non-heteronormative relationships were repressed in this country – as they still are in many countries today – should be remembered, and should inform our reaction to the re-emergence and re-strengthening of far-right groups and others who would see these rights revoked, given the chance.
- Love is a spectrum - “Labels are like clothes you can put them on and off again”, this quote has become a very personal quote as it has helped me and my friends discover our identities and sexuality. The rainbow colours famously stand for diversity, love and acceptance but the boxes show how sometimes labels may constrict oneself, limit oneself. But actually, love and sexuality is a spectrum and like the swirl of waves one can move between labels and see which one fits for oneself at that given moment. There are no clear lines between gay, bi and straight, these lines are blurry, and sexuality can be so much more diverse such as pansexuality and biromantic heterosexuality etc. “I am somewhere on the spectrum and thus I identify as queer. Whether you choose to label yourself or not, you are valid and you are loved. Love is a spectrum.”
- Love during Covid - This small drawing is of the wives Kiera and Aimie Lawlor-Skillen who have founded a very successful wellbeing café in Manchester during Covid times. They have already won multiple awards such as the “Manchester business of the year”. They create queer-friendly spaces and spread their love and wellbeing messages through their “we are feel good club” instapage, shop and positivity campaign. With Manchester Finest and Jack Arts they have worked together to spread their messages on billboard posters across the city. I find their work very impressive, and I wanted to celebrate them in this exhibition. “Heading in to the month that’s all about love (February), I am committing to loving myself”- we are feel good club.
- Nature is Queer Series - This “Nature is Queer” digital art series aims to disprove all people using nature as a reason to be queerphobic. If we follow the “God created men and women to reproduce” mantra, God also created all queer people and a nature full of queer animals. There is a reason for everything, whether we think in terms of religion or evolution. The paper, Animal Transsex by Myra J. Hird is a powerful paper to demonstrate this. It focuses on transsexuality and other identities within the animal kingdom. Many other papers have also found that animals` sexuality is on the spectrum, such as the bisexual ducks living in polyamorous relationships. With this piece I wanted to use academics to point out what we already know: we are all natural.
- How wrong we were to think that immortality meant never dying - This piece aims to demonstrate how something that can be such a core part of your self-identity, like your sexuality, can still be utterly grotesque and broken from the pressures of the external world. Ideally, self-love should be infinite and the things that make us unique immortalise us, but that doesn’t mean those things can’t be torn down and broken.
- Feminist Flip Book - This ‘Feminist Flip Book’ compiles early film footage from a 1913 event depicting English suffragette Emily Davison during her final act of protest. Davison campaigned tirelessly for the cause. During her lifetime, she was arrested nine times, went on seven hunger strikes and was force-fed 49 times. She died after stepping out into the oncoming horse race depicted in this flip book.