Preview: Queer Kraak Art Show 2011, August 26-31
Article published: Monday, August 22nd 2011
This week Kraak Gallery plays host to its second annual queer art show this August as an alternative event to Manchester Pride Festival. Expect this year to be bigger, better, louder and ruder.
The Queer Kraak Art Show will be launching energetically this week with guerrilla art on Canal Street and a preview on Thursday August 25 at 6pm featuring performance by art critic Barbara the Gay and electro duo German Techno Lesbians.
The show was spurred into existence by a noticeable lack of Queer, DIY, artist-led activity in the city during Pride, and its aim is to raise some important issues during an event where binge drinking and commercialism normally takes precedence: Artists have something to say with this show- be it political or personal, or both.
Queer artists came together for the previous show in 2010 after an open call by artist and director of Kraak Gallery Debbie Sharp, and are now re-grouping with new additions to deliver visual and performative art for a week-long visual art show with accompanying one-off events. Artists will also deliver a much-needed injection of direct art and activism to Canal Street itself. Expect flash mobs, guerrilla art, queer monsters and unexpected toilet attendants – ‘Queer Kraak’ is back in 2011 bigger, better, louder and ruder.
Queer Kraak is an inclusive LGBTQ platform and welcomes all to interact with the project. As part of this there will be an open studio in the gallery prior to the exhibition where artists and the public can view and interact with the art making process from Monday 22 to Thursday 25 August between 12-4pm. This will serve as a hub of art and activism in the run up to the Pride weekend with poster and sticker making, alongside open discussion with the artists involved.
Embracing the word ‘queer’, and the difference between the use of ‘queer’ and ‘gay’ is a central discussion point of the show. The group’s thoughts on the issue were informed by a recent row in which writer Lee Hall agreed to swap the word ‘queer’ for the word ‘gay’ in an opera featuring East Yorkshire school children, after the head teacher of Bay Primary School in Bridlington voiced concerns about the “emotional wellbeing” of the children, wanting to protect them from “offensive language”.
The artist Homocult will be exploring subjects such as identity and the self – either directly or linked to being queer – by playing with familiar forms from pop culture. The use of language in this work questions what we find offensive and why. An example of this is shown with the term Homocult itself: Broken into its two parts ‘Homo’ and ‘Cult’, connotations of aggression, oppressive name-calling and manipulation may be drawn. Whereas in other terms ‘homo’ meaning human and ‘cult’ being an abbreviation of culture, Homocult can simply mean culture of humans.
Image by Niloo Kohan
Niloo Kohan will be showing her body of work entitled ‘Coming Out’ in which she approaches cultural identity and freedom with a series of documentary style photographs. Talking about her aims for the work Kohan explained, “As an Iranian immigrant, I have always been keen to show the difference between freedom in the West and lack of democracy in Iran. This body of work is comparing two big but very different festivals; UK Gay Pride and a 10 day religious ceremony in Iran called Moharam.”
Kraak will be living up to being recently tipped as one of the top 10 multi-purpose cultural destinations by The Guardian, and the show is part of a wider alternative Pride weekend that has everything imaginable needed to keep your Mancunian outsider occupied. Club Brenda, a long-standing alternative club night and creative platform serving Manchester’s DIY underground, will this year present avant-garde performance and cabaret artist David Hoyle, warehouse party makers Twat Boutique DJ’s and Wirral based extreme pop outfit Organ Freeman. This explosion of a weekend will also see new venture Tranarchy present an interactive screening of camp classic Showgirls, and celebrate the most outrageous end of the spectrum of Manchester’s drag and alternative queer culture – buckle in for Showgirls inspired performance, tranny stripping and lap dancing contests.
Rosanne Robertson
Details:
Address: Kraak Gallery, 11 Stevenson Square, Northern Quarter, Manchester, M1 1DB
Artists taking place in this year’s show are Stephen Binnion (Homocult), Sara Ellis, Rachael Field, Mark Harris, Harry-Hazman, Niloo Kohan, Michael Lucas, Rosanne Robertson and Debbie Sharp.
Opening times: 11am – 6pm
Website: http://kraak.co.uk/
More: Culture, Manchester
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