The Museum of Transology’s collection of signs from the Black Trans Lives Matter rally
(Picture: Suzanne Zhang)Queer history is not just about political activism. That is loud and clear as the Bishopsgate Institute takes over the Curve Gallery in the Barbican Centre to celebrate their 40th birthday. The Institute has foraged through their LGTBQ+ archives to find the camp, the unexpected and the poignant. It’s not just any archive exhibition, it’s very queer.
The banners and the feather boa at the very beginning give it away. Politics, but make it sexy. And it’s not as though the monumental struggles of the last few decades have been sidelined; they’re still very much present. But the lack of grand narrative works because it admits that multiple things are true at once. In fact, that’s the point.
A remembrance book from London Lighthouse, an HIV hospice that opened in the 1980s, sits happily alongside the photo albums of a gay man documenting his lovers in the same era. There are log books from Switchboard, an LGBT+ helpline, where volunteers are asked to “please be gentle” with Pete from York who lost his partner to AIDS three weeks ago. The books are side by side with Porchester Drag Ball posters that get increasingly kinkier as the years go on.
The disparity in tone serves to highlight that while the community were facing social and political battles like Section 28, they were also out partying and living their lives. It’s not solely about politics and protest, it’s a celebration of culture and sexuality. And the sheer range of media in the exhibition makes it especially accessible. You can watch a performance by the legendary cabaret singer Zsarday Forde and have a flick through newspapers, pamphlets and even porn magazines (all thoroughly labelled of course, no surprises here).
A lot of thought has very obviously been put into representation of identities across the LGBTQ+ spectrum. A particular highlight is from The Museum of Transology which, since 2014, has collected over 500 objects from trans, non-binary and intersex people. Their collection of protest signs from the June 2020 Black Trans Lives Matter rally in London is quite simply beautiful.
As with any archive exhibition there are limitations. How can you celebrate an identity or an intersection within the community when there simply isn’t an archive of those voices? So not only is Out and About a celebration of 40 moments of the last 40 years, it’s also a call to action to add to the Bishopsgate Institute archives. The exhibition is a testament to the power of social and oral history and the Institute is ready for more.
