This is an absorbing piece of work that has been made to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act. The theme for the piece is the non-representation of Gay males in the historical archive - an aspect commonly referred to as part of 'LGBTQ hidden histories'. Vale looks at SEAS (South East Archive of Seaside Photography) looking for potential Gay male cues in the black and white photographs and blows them up into larger scale pieces.
Latent: A Hidden History
Because of historical cultural and political stances Queer people were hidden from mainstream society (and still are to a certain extent as public displays of affection are usually frowned upon). The artist searches for "fleeting moments that were unintentionally recorded" in the archive. These 'Queer-by-proxy' moments (two men standing together, a look in passing, a hand idly resting on a shoulder) are used as metaphors for the real situations that cannot manifest themselves in open society and therefore are not recorded in the historical archive; and even if they were are sometimes omitted or removed for dubious reasons of taste, decency, and embarrassment.
I'm reminded of the work of William E Jones in "Killed: rejected images of the Farm Security Administration" in looking for potential LGBTQ moments rejected and hole-punched through by the FSA editor Roy Stryker:
"Killed" write up
"Latent: A Hidden History" comprises of two parts. The first set of images are the magnified elements that contain potential but ambiguous Gay male identities; the second is the original photograph from which the extraction came, showing a tiny blank space highlighting the notion of hidden Queer histories. This juxtaposition creates a visual dynamic between the two elements that is quite powerful in explaining the process of oppression over the "Other" in a Paternalistic and dominantly Heterosexual society.
I've only seen this work online but enjoyed analysing the ambiguous images and comparing them to their original photographs. There is a sense of living 'some kind of life' in the shadows; unlike my LGBTQ Holocaust body of work, which at times feels like I am making work purely about suffering - about what was done to them, rather than the people themselves. This is because of the limited personal accounts and descriptions that exist - they tend to detail the atrocities and not much about the individuals.
As I write this it occurs to me that I need to re-read "The Men With the Pink Triangle" with a view to extracting something more humane from the text that could prompt me to create visual metaphors about individuals and not suffering. I think this would possibly add a balancing element to the work without detracting from the main thrust of my intent.
I expect you have already considered this elsewhere in your studies, Michael, but yesterday as part of the male nude workshop I attended, we were discussing how the idea of the male art nude has been used historically as an "acceptable cover" for the homosexual gaze. Flicking through the images in Leddick's "The Male Nude" was fascinating I didn't read the text, but I imagine it would be useful for what you are researching.
ReplyDeleteYes, I have some specific LGBT texts that relate to the male nude in art. But thanks,Holly I will certainly have a look for that.
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