We attended an exhibition of LGBTQ+ art at Cambridge

Held at Lucy Cavendish College, the exhibition included representations of both the visual and the performing arts

2 years ago | UPDATED 2 years ago

CN: gender dysphoria, surgery, homophobia

At a one-night-only event (11/02) in Lucy Cavendish College’s Nautilus Bar, an exhibition of queer art created by Lucians was held to commemorate LGBTQ+ History Month. The art focused primarily on the unique experiences – positive, negative, and those too complicated to characterize as either – faced by the LGBTQ+ community.

This is by no means an exhaustive review of the works featured: you, the reader, are heavily encouraged to visit Lucy’s Nautilus Bar to experience the exhibition for yourself.

The art and the artists

What first caught my eye when I entered the exhibition was Wounds by Oscar Sharples. A digital illustration that documents top surgery, Oscar describes it as a “celebration.” He intends for Wounds to remind cisgender people that top surgery – which seems outwardly “violent, graphic, and painful” – was the biggest step he took to care for himself. He added that “it wasn’t violent at all” to him, even if it was painful.

Top surgery, to Oscar, was a transformative experience. In his own words, “it was an end to the violence of living in a body unsuited to me.”

PDA by William Anderson-Pithers is meant to be a representation of the fear queer couples face when engaging in public displays of affection. Created using acrylic on canvas, he aims to draw attention to the fact that violence and prejudice against queer couples was and continues to be prevalent, manifesting through internalised fear of judgement and abuse both physical and verbal.

Will also explained that PDA was inspired by both personal and wider experiences. He felt a need to be “subtle” when being intimate with others in public, a need to “not be completely public in the way I felt with them.” This, he believes, is an experience shared by a lot of LGBTQ+ individuals in relationships, who cannot publicly display affection for those they love without fear of discrimination.

Other highlights include How wrong we were to think immortality meant never dying by Tegan Longcroft, a sketch that attempts to express how “a core part of your self-identity, like your sexuality, can still be utterly grotesque and broken from the pressures of the outside world.”

The use of gay jokes and identities as punchlines, to Tegan, is both a “saddening and infuriating experience.” She sees the piece as a reimagining of the phrase “beating a dead horse,” with the dead horse’s anger representing the pushback to “bite those who have beaten them beyond death.”

Ferris Wheels is a poem by Jacob Tucker that calls upon themes of time’s relation to social progression and regression.

In this context, Jacob reminds the reader of “the ‘aeon years’ in which non-heteronormative relationships were repressed in this country – as they still are in many countries today.” He also asserted that “our reaction to the reemergence and re-strengthening of far-right groups and others who would see these rights revoked” should be informed by those ‘aeon years’.

The vernissage also included one-time-only performances by Lucy Cavendish students, including “Chelsea Bridge” by Billy Strayhorn, “Fast Car” by Tracy Chapman, and “Vincent” by Sarah Connor.

The LGBTQ+ Officer behind the exhibition

The Tab also spoke to Leila Schaaf, who is the LGBTQ+ Officer for Lucy as well as the exhibition’s curator, about her plans for queer expression at the College.

While in the process of running to be the position of LGBTQ+ Officer, Leila decided that she “loved the idea” of a queer art exhibition, which would be a “unique experience at Lucy celebrating LGBTQ+ History Month.” In her own words, she sought to “provide a platform for people to comfortably share their struggles, hopes and thoughts celebrating queer expression and queer personalities.”

She added, “I wanted to portray to future applicants that this is a queer-friendly space.”

Leila also described Lucy Cavendish College as “helpful” when it came to organising the exhibition, particularly the Domestic Bursar, who “met with [her] on multiple occasions.”

“Art can be profoundly communicative to the audience,” she says, “and everyone can have their own interpretations.” Here, she pointed to Tegan’s piece How wrong we were to think immortality meant never dying.

As this was the first event she hosted, Leila was particularly happy with the exhibition’s outcome. “So many people came, the atmosphere was very wholesome, many people were touched, the musical performances were amazing, and all the contributions were really meaningful.”

The exhibition can be viewed in the Nautilus Café at Lucy Cavendish College throughout February, after which it will be printed in a photo book to be stored in the Lucy Cavendish College Library.

Feature image credits: Leila Schaaf