Features / LGBT
Exhibition to celebrate Bristol’s LGBTQ+ memory
Bristol’s LGBTQ+ history is an underrepresented field, despite significant landmarks and movements, it is not well documented.
Websites like OutStories are working to chronicle the city’s queer history. Stories range from long-running queer nightlife venues to locations of significant LGBTQ+ protests.
The movement to place value on Bristol’s queer history is blossoming. Two Bristol-based artists are looking to contribute to this growth.
is needed now More than ever
Ben Hartley and Johnny Jones, also known as Buoys Buoys Buoys, are both enthusiastic about links between objects and memory, alongside recording human experiences.
As part of Bristol City Council’s Cultural Investment programme, the pair were awarded a grant from the Originator’s Fund.
“We proposed a programme of events researching and celebrating the topics of queer memory. The exhibition was inspired by bogs and their remarkable ability to preserve,” said Ben.
The exhibition: Bog Idol, opens on November 22 at the KIT FORM gallery. There will be an opening ritual with performances based around fertility and manifestation.
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Visitors to the exhibition will be invited to contribute to a time capsule which will be interned at the end of the exhibition. It will close on December 1, where there will be a collaborative ritual.
The pair told Bristol24/7 they are excited to bring people together, and share new perspectives. They have conducted a large amount of research, including a recent visit to see the bog bodies in the National Museum of Ireland.
Ben and Johnny at The National Museum of Ireland researching for the article
Ben told Bristol24/7 about the project’s aim to platform LGBTQ+ history: “Historically, stories have been de-queered to fit the norms of the times. There’s been a great movement in recent years to undo this erasure.
“Smaller queer scenes are often particularly overlooked. We think it’s important to capture the more anecdotal, day-to-day history.”
Both Johnny and Ben reflected on the contemporary climate for LGBTQ+ people, and where the project fits within this context.
“Queer & trans people are being discussed and dehumanised by politicians across the world. It is important to think about the humanity of members of the community and the importance of having small anecdotes of our lives archived,” said Johnny.
The pair’s idea was to take a snapshot of Bristol’s current queer reality to act as a time capsule. This forms part of a manifestation of a safer future for queer people, to be “opened” when this has been established.
Johnny and Ben will be running workshops on November 24. Ben will be leading a fertility doll making workshop, exploring the tradition of ancient wooden idols of ambiguous or fluid gender discovered in peat bogs, presumed to have been used in fertility rituals.
Participants will be able to make their own fertility dolls using scrap materials while talking and learning about this ancient tradition.
Johnny’s workshop is going to be a drawing and papercraft exploration of identity in relation to place. This will look at pilgrimages taken literally and figuratively throughout time, and honouring the importance of the memories we pick up along the way.
Other artists involved in the project include Belladonna Paloma and Ùna Maria Blyth who has created a soundscape to accompany the exhibition. Spoken word performer Daniela Dyson, bog body academic Luke Ridley, and movement practitioner Eden have all helped in the creation of the project.
Movement performer Eden will be performing at the exhibition’s opening event
Ben and Johnny were determined to use creatives with a connection to Bristol and the South West.
“We want the project to create a space for community healing, bringing members of Bristol’s queer community together, a ritual in itself,” the pair told Bristol24/7.
The artists want to create a space for community collaboration, creativity and education. They hope audiences will gain a new perspective on queerness as part of history, and mythology.
“Without a doubt, investing your interest and ideas into community is so crucial. Working in tandem with the exhibition and performances in Bog Idol there’s a fascinating vein of community storytelling that we’re so excited to bring people into,” said Ben and Johnny.
They continued, “The evolving, ‘othered’ nature of queerness shifts, tying it closely to the world of folklore. With that comes a rejection of the ‘official’.
“The queer community finds our identities and family in the world of storytelling, performance and modern mythologies. These are values that we want to put at the forefront of Bog Idol.”
Bog Idol will be exhibited at KIT FORM gallery from November 22 until December 1. More information can be found here: VASW – Bog Idol .
Tickets to the opening ritual, on November 22, can be bought here: Bog Idol: Opening Ritual, KIT FORM – Headfirst Bristol .
All Images: Ben Hartley and Johnny Jones
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