____________________________________________
SCENE
2021
An exhibition of drawings at Hamilton MAS running 1st - 12th September.
In March 2020 I found myself in Felixstowe Suffolk, little did I know this would be the start of a 16 month residency. Away from my London studio I found new ways of working along with a new coastal subject. SCENE exhibits a series of 12 drawings made on an iPad ‘en plein air’ on an area of cliff face that once was a hotel's formal garden. Trees frame the seascapes creating an environment with connotations of cruising grounds.
Each print measures 594x420mm and is available in an edition of 20 for £125 unframed.
Pease contact me here for availability and ordering
____________________________________________
EIGHT INCHES AND THICK
2019
250 sitters sat for 1309 drawings, usually with thier clothes off. Part diary, part directory, Eight Inches And Thick offers a collective portrait of a group of homosexuals in East London.
This book is the culmination of a 14 month project. Inviting users of Grindr to sit for me as life models in my Hackney studio. I drew anyone who could offer their time, making no discrimination on looks. The book contains every drawing made over the project, the great drawings and the not so great. Pacing and editing has been given through scaling of images.
CREDITS
Introduction text _ Marco Livingstone
Crit transcript _ Dr Sheena Calvert and Ajamu.
Graphic Design _ Regular Practice
Video & Photosgraphy _ James Barnett
Drawings _ Sam Wingate
____________________________________________
SHIRT LIFTERS
2018
Shirt Lifters stem from the series Grindr Drawings, where tropes emerged in the way men present themselves online - the headless torso, the bathroom or gym setting and the lifted shirt.
The title of the series, taken from the derogatory term for gay men, reclaims the abusive name giving it power to celebrate the body.
The drawings fall into two collections small colour drawings made directly from Grindr users profile pictures and larger graphite drawings made from life in the studio. The two sets play on the theme of online representation and the IRL (in real life) experience.
___________________________________________
Grindr Quilt
2017
Grindr Quilt considers behaviours that are inherited - somehow passed down through generations where intergenerational connections rarely exist. It draws parallels between Cottaging and Grindr. It acknowledges Grindr in the domestic environment, and the more intimate relationships that can be created through use of dialogue.
Winner of the 2017 Emerald Winter Pride Arts Award
____________________________________________
Pardon Rug
2017
Pardon Rug considers older men who in 2017 received a pardon from the British government for convictions held for homosexual acts that would no longer stand today. The form of a rug provides a metaphor for something that is walked over and that problems are swept under.
____________________________________________
London Cottage
2017
A broken narrative documenting the wordless language used within Cottaging, the act of men seeking sex with other men in public toilets.
____________________________________________
Chechnya Rug
2017
Chechnya Rug was made rapidly as an act of protest against the treatment of homosexuals in Chechnya in 2017. It portrays a young man who silenced by a pink triangle, the symbol used by the Nazi’s to mark homosexual men in the concentration camps and later adopted as a symbol of gay rights. As a rug he is walked over and ignored.
____________________________________________
The Invert
2017
Edition of 12
The Invert is a short picture book documenting the narrative of a gay man in 1950's London, living in a time of homosexual criminality. We follow the protagonist on his journey to find connections with other men, and witness his eventual downfall at the hands of the law.
The size of the book, small enough to fit in a pocket, reflects the secretive way in which many homosexuals were forced to live at the time.
____________________________________________
The Inalienable Right To Be Gay
2016/2017
TIRTBG takes it's name from Margaret Thatcher’s 1987 Conservative Party conference speech where she introduced the concept of section 28, a law that effectively stopped the promotion, encouragement or positive presentation of homosexuality in schools across the UK.
The project presents the shifting position of gay men in UK society since the period of partial decriminalisation of homosexual acts in 1967. Interviews, drawing and archival research were used to gather information for this project. Conversations were had with homosexual men ageing from 20-78 about their experiences of being gay in London during their early twenties. These first hand accounts were presented alongside news headlines from the respective eras and representations of homosexuals in popular culture.
