Queer as Muck: Re-emergence open Today and Sunday

Queer As Muck: Re-emergence

Exhibition runs: 13 & 14 April, 11am – 5pm
Quiet Opening: 12 April, 5 – 6pm
Opening event: 12 April, 6 – 8pm

Queer ecology explores how people regard nature in the binary, using oppositions such as natural or unnatural: in reality, nature exists in a continuous state.

Queer As Muck: Re-emergence brings together four artists in this collective to explore how these human perspectives on nature can be subverted.

Through sculpture, installation and sound, the theme of queerness in nature develops parallels between sexuality, gender and disability in this work.

The work presented spans interior and exterior space in Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, creating a conversation across these spaces to draw attention to shared elements: queerness as inherently fluid and evolving.

Artists

Iona Peterson is an intermedia artist based in Scotland. Having graduated from Edinburgh College of art with a degree in Fine Art, they are currently on a graduate residency at the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop. Their work explores relationships to land and nature through a queer lens and is centred around methods of community building. Because of this, their process is often informed through conversations, participation, and collaboration. Currently, they are interested in how creatures are adapting to increased human activity in innovative ways. What can we learn about ourselves and our relationship to the environment from their changing behaviours?

Caelan John James Sutcliffe (he/they) is a Welsh artist and writer living in Edinburgh. He attended Cardiff Academy of Art before going on to Edinburgh College of Art, where he became one of the founding members of the Queer as Muck collective and graduated with a Fine Art degree. Their work utilises text and natural materials, creating sculpture-like frameworks for his writing. He views the world through a genderqueer and autistic lens. They are currently focusing on the interaction and interlacement of people(s) and their environment. They are working especially around ideas of the interrelated nature of anti-oppressive struggles across our communities. Underpinning these ideas is a deep connection to nature and its multitudes.

Imogen Lee Allen, (she/her), a queer artist based in Edinburgh creates sculptures using a variety of materials like found objects, natural resources, metal, and wood. Her work surrounds the intricate relationship between humanity and nature, defying perceptions of human superiority. Drawing from her own experiences and relationships with specific environments, she explores how physical connections and cultural stories are intertwined. By fostering a reconnection with natural forces, she hopes to inspire contemplation and evoke a sense of wonder, inviting viewers to allow themselves a moment of calm and contemplation amongst a world of chaos.

Molly Wickett (she/her) creates large-scale works formed of small-scale, delicate sculptural pieces. She works predominantly in wood, metal and organic materials in a research-based practice that seeks to understand the relationship between the individual and their place in a wider system. Through a disabled and queer lens, natural life cycles that run parallel to our own are disrupted and altered to offer a landscape of regrowth and hope. Her practice develops relationships between social themes and environments as an ecology of sorts, examining how identities, narratives, and practical methodologies interrelate.

Imogen Lee Allen, Iona Peterson and Molly Whickett are currently undertaking our ESW/ECA Graduate Residency, with support from ECA.