Using art to explore how social structures harm LGBTQ+ people

An art project taking place this spring will explore how social structures harm LGBTQ+ people.

Undisciplined is bringing together queer people in a series of discussions and creative workshops on Zoom. The group will create art exploring their experiences how societal norms and harmful social structures affect queer people, which will be exhibited in April 2021.

The project is being run by 22-year-old Giles, who lives in Bedminster. Having grown up in a conservative, Christian environment, they wanted to explore how institutions such as the education system, religion and family, create and enforce heteronormativity.

“I realised how little discussion there is among mainstream queer spaces about structural violence,” says Giles, who began mapping out the project in autumn 2020, after being part Creative Youth Network’s young artist residency programme.

“Violence against LGBTI+ people in the UK are often framed as being perpetrated by individual actors, for example through hate crime or domestic abuse.

“While this is serious, and reprehensibly common, there is little acknowledgement of the social structures that produce this violence, and enforce things like gender binaries, heterosexism and monogamy.”

Image: Undisciplined

Giles wanted to encourage LGBTQ+ people to use art to reflect on their experiences and interrogate the structures of society.

“I think the arts can help us both process our experiences and imagine these new possibilities, which is why it’s the focus of the group,” Giles says.

“I’m keen to hold space for queer artists and creatives to make share ideas, make work and envision something different.”

Anyone who identifies as LGBTQ+ can join the workshops and explore the harm they have experienced. Those aged between 16 and 25 can then display their work in the exhibition at the end of April.

The project has had to be made Covid-19 safe, so is taking place entirely online. The pandemic, as well as affecting how people can come together, but has forced queer people into potentially harmful situations and forced them away from their chosen families.

The project will help LGBTQ+ explore societal structures. Photo: Jack Joseph

“Covid-19 has dispossessed the LGBTI+ community of queer spaces,” says Giles.

“That said, I think that the queer spaces that do exist (or did before the pandemic) are often self-oriented and/or commercialised. While I think self-care and safe venues are important, I also think there is a lack of solidarity in these spaces with the harm that LGBTI+ people, particularly those who live at the intersections of oppression, still experience.”

“Framing the conversation around structural violence opens up space for more marginalised voices, such as disabled queer people and queer people of colour, to be heard. If we’re trying to imagine new spaces and possibilities, we need to make sure they work for everyone.”

The workshops will take place on a Monday evening throughout February and March, ahead of the exhibition in April.

Main photo: Emily Lloyd

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