AmyLavernia

An impromptu day out (part one) – People’s History Museum.

July 19, 2017

Last Thursday morning, I expected to wake to another day of recluse, painting and writing. Instead, I found myself on a train to Manchester following an out-of-the-blue invitation by my Granddad to see the opening night of the exhibition “Queer Noise” at The People’s History Museum. Our visit included an exploration of the likes of gay culture, drag and politics ( I can see now, why my Granddad offered me his spare ticket).

I found this visit to The People’s History Museum in great timing, as it provided useful information for various other LGBT+ related articles I had already had in mind. Something that added to the experience was a sense of personal association, being a bisexual, a sexuality that is often overlooked or misunderstood even in gay culture, that the inclusion felt was like a breath of fresh air. Also, being a lover of drag art and being from Manchester, it seemed the perfect expression of my identity and highlighted the community that I will possibly grow to be a part of; I imagine that this is how many other guests felt, and you could somewhat feel it in the air, noises that are usually overwhelming became welcoming and instead of feeling small amongst the crowd I felt a part of something, despite being around strangers.

The opening night of Queer Noise

With it being the opening night, the celebration added to an atmosphere that was so much more than I had expected, (exhibitions usually consisting of folded arms and the occasional muttering of an opinion) with diverse audience of visitors, the room full of the excited conversing of friends that really expressed the communal spirit, (also, lots of cool looking people who I was too awkward to talk to). “Queer Noise” explores Manchester’s history of LGBT+ music and club culture. The exploration of the influence of music was only fitting for Manchester, a city notorious for it’s musical culture, and it comes as no surprise to see that this had influence on the cultures of gender and sexuality. My favourite example of this being with banners (of which my camera couldn’t get a good enough picture of due to my short height) saying “Bowie turned me queer” and “gay for Morrissey”. The Bowie banner having a degree of truth to myself, for Bowie has inspired my love of androgynous style and use of performance persona as an artistic medium. Bowie also helped me to accept my own sexuality, this again showing the constant influences of music on ones own identity. “Queer Noise” was curated by Abigail Ward, who proudly stood and delivered a speech to the supporting group of visitors, after the hush of music and chatter, she spoke of her own experiences: her inspiration being her own search for her queer community in 1998 (having never met a lesbian before), and finding this through music, such as Homo Electric, “I personally found my queer community when I found my music community”, this message of the effects of music on finding a sense of belonging and fellowship become even more evident for myself that night, as I was later approached by someone complimenting the painting of Bowie on the back of my jacket ( I promise I’ll stop talking about Bowie now) this lead to sitting in a bar with her and her friend and talking about Joy division and Iggy Pop.

Back onto the topic at hand, Ward also spoke of the overlapping of the queer scene and the punk scene, something, I think, highlights an era of liberation through the variation of musical movements. With music, food, drink, speeches made and performances; the opening night wasn’t only a celebration of an exhibition, but a celebration of the community itself.

( Drag mother and daughter, Violet Blonde (right) and Beauvaleau Blonde (left) and I (the awkward peanut in the middle) )

( Me, modelling (rather badly) the hand embellished helmet of the fabulous, moustached @creativeheadspace (instagram) )

A performance by Grace Oni Smith

The opening of “Queer Noise” was complimented by a stunning lip sync performance and show of projections by drag artist Grace Oni Smith, in which told the story of LGBT+. With a revealing costume of delicately wrapped bandages, and crutches, it was a display of vulnerability, of pain and the battle scars of the wounded throughout the history of the LGBT+ community. Bringing home the mistreatment’s faced, an ode to those who have lost their lives due to hate and prejudice, and to every bruise left on a bullied child or the emotional wounds of family rejection (to name a few of the possible sufferings), this made me aware and grateful of my position, having not faced these pains, aware of the sufferings of history to bring me (and others) a safer and liberating culture of acceptance.The juxtaposition of the extravagant beauty of makeup screaming the pride, freedom and art of growth, and the celebration of individuality. The dropping of the crutches, standing tall and proud, showing how we, the LGBT+ community, can fight for ourselves, and the growth of liberation and strength with the passing of time in the 21st century and the ever developing society.

Never Going Underground

“For hundreds of years LGBT+ people have been criminalised, persecuted and erased from history. The battle for equality is long and hard fought, with brave pioneers taking a stand, and activists and campaigners coming together to fight for the right to simply be themselves. These are our stories…”

“Never Going Underground”, was another LGBT+ themed exhibition, exploring the broader history. The exhibition introduced me to a variation of LGBT+ icons including: Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore, Edward Carpenter a poet, socialist campaigner and early gay rights activist and Peter Wildeblood (a pretty cool name I must admit), the author of “Against the Law” (1955) who was imprisoned on charges of indecency between men. Being a perfect compliment to “Queer Noise”, seeing the exhibition made even more evident the potent integrity of the underworld of sexuality and gender liberation, as it told many of the real life stories of the past, and the fighting for rights that has brought about the (though not yet perfect) society we live in that Grace Oni Smith expressed, and showed that whether through the use of artistic statement, activism or any other expression, no matter the rain, the flames shine still.

(My failure to focus the camera created an accidental meaning, expressing the sense of misunderstanding in the bisexual community, a lack of focus in society… )

( a moving instillation of envelopes holding small messages of love to lost ones, expressing a fellowship and connection through bereavement)

(An image from “self portraits” of Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore (1920s) )

Continuum: “Framing Trans Lives in 21st Century Britain”

“Continuum’ focuses on the power of creativity to transform otherwise difficult and overlooked experiences and the ability of visual art to communicate the otherwise incommunicable.”

“Continuum” was a collection of artwork by trans and non-binary artists, curated by Artmob (founded by Louis Bailey and Alex J Gardener) Alex J Gardener states in a lino piece, “It is human nature to want to be seen heard recognised”, Alex’s works “explore the philosophy and politics of (in)visibility of trans identities” this is evident in this piece, clearly creating an expression of humanity, and makes apparent that the LGBT+ is asking nothing more than what is wanted by anyone else, whilst being in the form of art, the truest form of self expression, connotes the boldness of self acceptance in a society that still holds views of ignorance. It was a perfect expression of the art of gender, and the abilities to express it. Using the language of art to communicate the artists story, feelings or just express their support, this exhibition highlighted the power of art in addressing social issues and acting in a catalytic way of reform and improvement, a platform of vocalisation. Artists featured are:

Nick Askew

Louis Bailey

Jeno Davies

Emma Frankland

Alex J Gardner

Chris Hubley

Samantha/Scott Kentell

Sydney Main

Vijay Patel

Harry Saxon

JD Scott

Jak Soroka

With that, Part One of ” an impromptu day out” comes to a close, I hope that this post has provided some interest and possibly even inspired you to visit The People’s History Museum yourself! Part Two will be about my visit to the “La Movida” exhibition at Manchester’s HOME, centre of contemporary art, theatre and film.

~ AmyLavernia

References:
https://www.mdmarchive.co.uk/exhibition/id/77/QUEER_NOISE.html

https://www.artmob.co.uk/artists

http://www.phm.org.uk/whatson/queer-noise/

http://www.phm.org.uk/whatson/never-going-underground-the-fight-for-lgbt-rights/

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“What’s in a name” – An explanation behind AmyLavernia.

July 17, 2017

With the introductory post out of the way, I thought I would take the time to write an explanation to the context behind my choice of blog name.

I spoke of my procrastination in starting this blog; one thing that significantly held me back was trying to decide a blog name. Eventually deciding to (typically) choose the most obvious one of them all! It was important that the chosen name felt fitting, and rightly expressed me. Impressions, also, were important, as is the case with a book (despite the idiom) if it ain’t got a good first impression with it’s cover, or name, my eyes are skimming right past it during my trip to Waterstones (I already spend hours looking, forget needing to read the blurb of every book to try and make a judgement). I had spent months trying to think of the perfect name, waiting for the sudden inspiration of the perfect words. The attempted inspirations: “architect of art”, “author of thoughts”, “it’s a state of art” or “avant-garden of Eden” ( I am admittedly grateful that my past self thought better of these catastrophes) just didn’t cut it. And no amount of looking through Shakespeare quotes, picking my favourite phrases from Charlie Chaplin’s “Great Dictator” or reading every lyric book of every The Cure album I owned seemed to work either.

And so, (rather predictably) I eventually chose the name that had been staring me in the face, an ignored child tugging on the trousers of my imagination; the name I had already been using for my social media accounts for God knows how long: “AmyLavernia”. I mean, it has my name in it, how more “expresses me” can you be?

Anyway…

“Lavernia” is French name, as is Amy (a first link) meaning “goddess of the underworld” this, is what initially drew my interest in the name; a couple of years ago, I had a collaborative narrative “roleplay” (not THAT kind of roleplay) Facebook group chat, it was of a similar nature to the kind that you would do at primary school or when you’d reached the ultimate point of boredom during a family meal, and you would all take turns to carry on the sentence, this had adapted into a hobby for a few months (and is actually a great way of stimulating creativity and getting out of the ol’ writers block). I was choosing the name for my new character, of whom would be a demon in a similar style to Selene from Underworld (my latest craze at the time) and ended up taking a shine to this name and using it for my social media accounts. I now find this is a fitting name, as it not only has a nostalgic sentiment, but I find it perfectly fitting in expressing the “underworld” of the arts, a world seemingly separated from the realms of reality. It also has undertones of a Gothic semantic field, (or “vibe”) that resonates my love of the Gothic genres of music and literature.

To quote “www.sheknows.com”: “People with this name tend to initiate events, to be leaders rather than followers, with powerful personalities. They tend to be focused on specific goals, experience a wealth of creative new ideas, and have the ability to implement these ideas with efficiency and determination. They tend to be courageous and sometimes aggressive. As unique, creative individuals, they tend to resent authority, and are sometimes stubborn, proud, and impatient.” This description both highlights my character, mostly with the last sentence (not my best traits I must say) but also completely contrast with my character, mostly with “courageous”, “leaders” and “a wealth of creative ideas”, as a person who has the social skills of a block of wood and is in a constant state of, the previously mentioned, creative block, that this name then becomes part of the alter-ego I intend to obtain.

and with that, there’s a not-so-brief context to my name.

I am currently writing a two part post about my visit to Manchester exhibitions “Queer Noise” and “LaMovida” and also received a reply from artist John Casey for a feature article that I will transcribe into a post soon!

~ AmyLavernia
An impromptu day out (part two) – “La Movida”

July 14, 2017

So, to continue part two of “an impromptu day out”…

After we had finished our visit to The People’s History Museum, we decided to take a trip (a long and tiring walk of a trip) to HOME’s exhibition of “La Movida”, curated by Sarah Perks. The exhibition was exploring works inspired by the Spanish counterculture of the 80’s, in which explores the transgression of taboos, moral conventions, and the formerly suppressed topics of sexuality and politics, through the freedom of creative expression.

Artists featured in the exhibition included:

Oreet Ashery, Shumon Basar, Marissa Burgess, Luis López Carrasco, Mercedes Cebrián, Chantal Faust, La JohnJoseph, Jonathan Kemp, Anne Louise Kershaw, Omar Kholeif, Patricia MacCormack, Adam O’Riordan, Sarah Perks, Heather Phillipson, Natasha Stallard, Esther Teichmann, Greg Thorpe, Jason Wood & James King.

I found the topic of questioning societies understanding of sexuality fitting to the themes of LGBT+ of the earlier trip to People’s History Museum. Sexuality, still being a widely explored topic in the world of art, with a constantly changing and developing of western disposition, as shown through all forms of LGBT+ rights, like the legalisation of gay marriage, and even just the development of an era that can more openly and freely talk of sexuality (in all forms of tastes and preferences) and freely explore this; the art world has particularly been, I believe, the catalytic epicentre of this throughout history, “La Movida” being a perfect example of this, art that refuses to be contained, un-apologetically so.

I have visited HOME, on one occasion before this visit, a college trip to see the play “Pomona”, and I knew from that one visit that I had a fondness of the place and I would recommend that anyone visiting Manchester should definitely take the time to explore this venue, especially as it is a great place to find contemporary theatre.

Along with the works of art, I also had the pleasure of meeting Shrek! (life long dream fulfilled) and to prove, I even have this (rather unflattering) picture. I must say, he was a lot quieter in real life (he didn’t speak at all), and I never thought of him as the art appreciative type. The work, by anonymous artist/collaborative “Puppies Puppies”, is from the meme series of “shrek is love shrek is life”, (if you don’t know what that is do not search it, unless you wish to be scarred for life) and expresses both the extremes of suppressed sexuality in the form of fictional characters, and an undertone of child abuse; The expression of the dark side of pop culture, portraying how a sexual predator may play the character of “child friendly”, as shown by the character of Shrek, to exploit a child’s ignorance and naivety, in a tediously distressing style. “Puppies Puppies” work also expresses the borderline between meme culture as an artistic concept itself… something I’ve often thought of (it sounds stupid but it does kinda make sense, right?) most art is a reaction to the social situations at that time, counterculture, I see memes as inhabiting this, as they are suppose to be the extremes of “meaningless”, satirical content, which you could argue is a form of art, in the sense that it isn’t suppose to be art in the slightest… I like to imagine that in 20 years time, they will be teaching the history of memes as some cultural movement, it seems the only thing particularly “radical” in the sense of contemporary art, anyway.

Enough of memes (got to try and keep this blog somewhat dignifying).

Art has often had a sense of encouragement of the expression of the hedonistic aspects of a given society, whether this be through the decadence of late Victorian era, surrealism, or “La Movida” (to name a few). The exhibitions explicit work evoked a discussion between my Granddad, a member of staff and I, as to whether art can really have the “shock factor” when shock has become a predictable aspect to art, this being quite an antithetical, paradox within the concept… How can something be both predictable and shocking? As it is becoming increasingly harder to evoke such response with the growth of media insensitivity. An example I used was with a comparison to the horror genre, particularly the likes of “Nosferatu”, a 1920’s audience would have found the film terrifying, yet, as horror has had to progressively intensify in order to evoke the same response, “Nosferatu” no longer has the same scare element to a contemporary audience as it would have done for its original audience (though it can still be appreciated as a great film nonetheless), this is a similar evolution in art, as my Granddad expressed it, “when you expect art to be shocking, it’s not really shocking anymore”, which I empathised, with a slight sense of underwhelming, when researching the gruelling concepts behind some of the works, I recognise that the expected reaction to such ideas wasn’t the reaction evoked, I felt somewhat indifferent to the “shocking” phallic imagery. Maybe naked bodies are no longer “shocking” in our liberated society? or it has become predictable? (but, a more detailed exploration of this is for another day, and another post).

I liked the expressionistic use of application and texture in this piece, and the more I look at it, the more imagery I seem to pick out than just a face. In the dark blue shape of the nose and eyes, I see the shape of an angel, with the brown beard and yellow mouth appearing as an allusion to the imagery of Gabriel above the stable, but the yellow becomes flames, with the religious imagery being reinforced by the distorted yellow cross on the forehead. To me, I see this piece as an expression of someones religious identity, the flames on the stable showing the disintegration of this, this can be further interpreted with the expressionist style, that the persons faith has become unclear. (this may not be the original concept at all, but this is how I interpret it, which is the great thing about art, I suppose, that everyone’s experience of a piece of work is entirely different.)

Incase you needed a slight existential crisis during your visit, “time isn’t real” by Paul Heyer, is a seemingly simple piece, but, the simplicity is the exact key to it. The piece creates a satire of modern art, questioning the conventions of art itself, as many, who don’t like modern art, seem to see it as unskilled and pretentious, as the works can be seen as less focused on artistic skill and instead a skill of analytical debate, in comparison to, say, the intricate style of renaissance art; “time isn’t real” seems like a light-hearted recognition of this opinion of art. It is almost mocking the complexities of allegorical art, where some may read a complete meaning in every use of colour, shape and texture, the antithesis of those who, just think it “looks nice”, and the question asked about every piece of art “what does it mean?”; a complete opposition to “aestheticism”. Heyer makes it garishly obvious, with the bold handwriting, (which, being handwriting instead of print, creates a sense of authenticity, maybe a further satire?) making it impossible to not understand it’s meaning. Evoking, for myself at least, both a chuckle and a recognition of the endless debates about the concept of time that I have had, all reduced into this three words on a silver canvas. When seeing the piece I could picture the perfect scenario for a comedy sketch, the artist thinking of radical expressions and writing until it reached it’s logically ridiculous conclusion. Ultimately, the simplicity of the work became rather clever and amusing.

This image of photographs by Bruce LaBruce, highlights the exploration of sex-politics, in a religiously satirical notion, the use of both religious and sexual imagery creates a clear juxtaposition, using images of chastity and purity, through the Nun imagery and use of the colour white, that explores the anti-hedonistic suppression within the history of religion, and the growing liberation of sexual desires.

And with that, is the end of the two part “An impromptu day out” post, my next post will be the promised (and long awaited) interview with artist John Casey!

~ AmyLavernia

references:

https://homemcr.org/exhibition/la-movida/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Movida_Madrile%C3%B1a

http://nightgallery.ca/artist.php?id=4

Click to access LM-Guide-Web.pdf

http://www.artspace.com/magazine/interviews_features/material-art-fair-2016/puppies-puppies-interview-53446
So, I finally got round to making that blog! – A short introduction.

July 12, 2017

Anyone who knows me has probably heard me say at some point over the past year, ” I’m thinking of making a blog” and up until recently, I have relentlessly procrastinated from getting round to actually doing it. Be it from sheer boredom, or a wave of maturity in the wake of the impending doom of university and independence, knocking on the door of the near future, or maybe, it’s just that I couldn’t think of a name ( something which I will be talking of in more detail in my next post)… But, whatever the cause, “that blog” is finally here! A shiny new toy to play with! ( I’ve just about finished popping the metaphorical bubble wrap).

So, the main point of this first post is to be a brief (or as brief as my overtly elaborate and easily digressive writing may allow me to) introduction to both myself and the blog.

To those who don’t already know me, the name’s Amy (nice to meet you) I am an 18 year old, soon to be, art student (more precisely Fine Art and Art History).

Here’s a quick taste of some of my favourite things to give you a flavour of me:

Favourite bands/musicians include: The Cure and David Bowie. Books: The Picture of Dorian Gray (the only acceptable Mr Gray round here) and Dracula. Actor: Charlie Chaplin, actress: Tilda Swinton. Artists: Salvador Dali, Otto Dix, Van Gogh (and too many more to mention). Colour: purple. Enthusiastic in instant coffee, painting and having opinions on stuff. (I could probably tell you a 5000 word essay on everything I like, but this will be covered over time for those who wanted seconds on their lil’ taster)

I have created this blog as a means of curing my English literature essay withdrawal and inspiring my creative writing, being a place to share my thoughts with the world. To write those debates I have in my head when I can’t sleep, or I forgot my headphones on the bus, eventually, reaching the point when I end up writing seemingly random paragraphs on phone notes, and then what? They sit there, unseen, useless. This blog will be a place for me to post these “ramblings” as I call them (my notes are currently on 162 pieces of potential rambling material). And, last but not least ( if anything, mostly) to record my journey as an artist.

Ultimately, the intention is to create a diverse blog. As I type this post, I already have 18 drafts, the freshly rust-eradicated and greased cogs turning with poems, short-stories, articles and interviews already in the works; that is why, having had this blog for a few days now, it is only at this point that I am writing my first post, as I have been collecting all the content my brain can muster, juggling every idea at once (I could never do anything simply). Something that caused a lot of excited grins today when I received responses to interview requests, including artists and drag kings!

I am looking forward to sharing this journey with all whom, in the future, may read and support this blog and I’m excited to see where it takes me. With today also being the day of my first sold painting (albeit to my dad), I am bit by bit learning to walk and passing the first few, of hopefully many, milestones.

I hope you all enjoy this blog, and please feel free to discuss together in the comments and use this blog as a space for a community of like-wise thinkers 🙂

will be posting again soon.

~ AmyLavernia

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