Inside time we are breathing

2020/21 brought with it a pause that led me to look inward. Inside I found a vast and moving world, full of past, future, here and now. My work over the past year has been a task in sitting with things, of looking in and reaching out. I sat with grief, we drank tea, we swore at the sea, we listened to the birds, we wept. I found that when I sat with grief I also sat with love, anger, loneliness, loss and hope. This led to a series of paintings and drawings which reflected this back. I discovered that this process is not linear and it is never static. It is something that exists in all of us and ebbs and flows like the tide. I began to think about time and started to explore memory; the ones that we retain and the ones that sit deeper inside us that come from our lived past and from pasts way before our births. During the first lockdown in particular, as the sense of isolation grew, it highlighted the vitalness of touch and community. For both myself and many LGBTQ+ friends I spoke to during this time, we found that with queer spaces closed and homes cut off from one another we became invisible. Queer people, have become invisible in the pandemic, not only to the world but to ourselves. Homophobia is on the rise. Lesbians and trans people in particular are not reflected back in the press, on the radio, on advertisements, in popular TV shows; our stories are rarely told. This has highlighted for me more than ever the importance of queer spaces for the LGBTQ+ community, for as long as we are living in a world that refuses to see us or to value us we need at least a few spaces we can go where our sexuality is not our point of difference. Where for a night Queer is the norm and celebrated and embraced by the people around us. In response to the lack of touch and connection over the pandemic, I have created a collection of sewn sculptures inspired by the imagery in my paintings, they are intended to be touched, held, played with, danced with, in any way people choose as a re-connection with the physical world. I have also collaborated with knitter Megan Sharples on a knitted costume inspired by my paintings. I brought together a small group of queer women and non-binary people to The Glory, Haggerston, to celebrate their queerness, embrace touch both for ourselves and for our community. I asked each person to bring outfits that they would like to wear on a night out, we played music, we interacted with one another and the sculptures, this was documented by photographer Marika Kochiashvili and here we are embracing our queerness together. In this act we become visible.

I would like to acknowledge that many LGBTQ+ people are not fully represented in these images, in no way do I feel it is wholly representative
of the richness and diversity within the LGBTQ+ community.

TRIGGER WARNING:
the poem below contains strong language

Website: www.jennyboatdraws.com
Instagram: @jennyboatdraws

Credits

Performance: Facilitated by Jenny Boat
Performers: Jenny Boat, Antonia Luxem, Stevie Rankin, Megan Sharples. Photography: Marika Kochiashvili.
Knit: made by Megan Sharples