Audio/Visual Content
This page focuses on the audio/visual content that was submitted for the Queering the Quarantine. These pieces consist of a range of different content including song, dance, and drag performances, and so we recommend you take a look to get a sense of the variety of queer expression under lockdown.
Emma wrote a song entitled "Love in the Quarantine" around the beginning of COVID in March 2020. They were writing down their feelings, particularly around finding love and connection during times of isolation. These themes feel particularly relevant for queer people who already face certain barriers in relating to others and rely on the community for support.
SEE ME: A WALK THROUGH LONDON'S GAY (UN)SEEN (2020)
'This film is made using digital transfer versions of c90 tape compilations I made between 1992-1995, juxtaposed with moving image footage of me in 2018 and 2020 and a typeface font graphic ‘See Me’ that I designed in 2005. The c90 cassette on screen is the cassette compilation that I still have from 1994.
This film includes sections of a walk that I made through Soho, London in the Summer of 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. As I walk, I listen on headphones to the compilation music tapes that I made when I first came to this area as a teenager in the 1990s.
As I walk down the streets that were so important in shaping my life as a young gay man living in London, I revisit the gay bars and pubs that have been my safe spaces for the last twenty years and more. In this ‘new normal’ - what spaces are now open for queer people to perform their visibility and what’s the future of those spaces that I discovered on my walk that are currently closed? Will certain closed spaces now mean that for some queer people, they will become invisible/unseen as their safe spaces have gone?
The film begins with me walking down Oxford Street to Poland Street to The Kings Arms where I first discovered that bears and cubs don’t just live in the forest."
Watch the video HERE.
”a process of shedding” is an EP of spoken word poetry created during the queer bodies artist development project in Liverpool, funded by Homotopia.
“a process of shedding” is a mini audio pamphlet, exploring the multifaceted nature of queerness and how each of those factors
come into play during a national lockdown. from losing family members, to navigating a smear test as a gender-questioning person;
“a process of shedding” plays with form and sound in an effort to create true intimacy. it should feel like a 3am conversation over a bottle of wine.
Listen to "a process of shedding" on Soundcloud.
Oliver created this poem during lockdown with a writing group based in Worcester called 'Standing Proud Writer's Group'.
They produced two anthologies together of their combined work during this time. Each week they were given prompts for writing challenges and this one was to choose an animal and relate it to queer experiences (it is not representative of all queer experiences though).
During lockdown several of Oliver's friends had talked about missing the scene, feeling touch starved or generally missing their ability to go out and hook up etc. Some had reflected that they're missing intimacy and a connection with anybody. Whereas other friends said they just missed the sexual transaction that could be gained from clubs and apps. Oliver felt he could empathise with feelings of loneliness and emptiness based on previous experiences and felt this is also a recurring narrative which can be presented as part of gay male culture. He hopes that the video montage helps to pull these themes together. The images in this montage come from different gay male movies, barren landscapes, arctic foxes and the tundras they inhabit.
The pandemic completely changed the way Rujazzle (goes by she/her when in drag) worked, and for much of 2020 she created work from inside her home (like many others).
She created this piece entirely by herself during the early lockdown using only items in her flat. Despite the limited budget and resources, Rujazzle tried to create a dark and twisted fantasy using the handmade costumes and interactive background projects, to transport the setting away from the reality of her "drab living room".
Using the electroclash sound of Fisherspooner's 'The 15th', Rujazzle's performance reflects the raw feelings of a queer artist restricted by a global crisis; the dark thoughts and the heightened emotions, urges, and dreams of what the future holds.
This piece was created in quarantine in response to feeling trapped and swallowed in the home. Stanley was reminded of times when he was younger and was coming to terms with his queerness. He thought about being back in that position and realised he would have struggled a lot. The video explores themes of queerness and self-censorship, developing into escapism and finding a safe space to explore and develop one's identity.
This piece showcases a Queer Bajan activist year in review. This submission takes the form of a video essay that took place during the incredibly challenging year of 2020. This year was one with much loss, but also acts as inspiration as it shows the tremendous resilience from the LGBTQIA+ community in Barbados and around the world.