Open Rooms #10: All Dressed Up With Nowhere To Go
Due to unforeseen circumstances, this event will be postponed. We will be rescheduling similar events in the future. Please sign up to our newsletter for event updates.
As the country grapples with adjusting to social distancing laws, social meetups have transferred onto online realms, creating new digital spaces for gathering. But how have things changed for those who have always been separated from their communities?
During LGBT History Month, our tenth Open Rooms event examines the history of documenting LGBTQ+ lives outside of queer spaces. The panel will discuss photographing LGBTQ+ lives in cities that don’t have a staple queer scene, how photography can amplify visibility for those who are underrepresented in the public queer sphere, and how lockdown has changed and impacted the historical spaces carved out for queer folk across the UK.
Panellists:
Kelly Stubbs Kelly has a background working as an Art and Media educator, across a variety of schools, FE colleges and universities. After struggling with her gender for the majority of her life, Kelly was finally able to support herself openly living and working as a Transgender woman in 2018. From an initial opportunity working for Liverpool Biennial, Kelly launched Transmission Art Project and threw her energies into organising Liverpool’s first Trans Pride in 2019. Transmission Art’s latest initiative is ‘Ports In A Storm’, which is a project geared towards helping marginalised communities participate more fully in public life & will launch at this year’s Light Night events. Kelly currently coordinates the Phoenix LGBT+ youth groups for the Proud Trust across Cheshire, as well as producing her own art work under the moniker ‘notgeorgestubbs’.
Kiara Mohamed (b.1990) is a trans, multidisciplinary artist based in Toxteth, Liverpool. His work focuses on identity, social issues and the role art plays in our lives in addressing these issues. He uses photography, poetry, film and drone photography to comment on post-colonial ideas and reflect on his background and the community he lives in. His work has been screened at Tate Liverpool and the British Museum with most recent projects for Savera UK and Homotopia 2020 shared online and installed in Liverpool Anglican Cathedral. A new commission of photographs has been acquired for the University of Salford Art Collection in partnership with Open Eye Gallery.
Alex Ferguson (he/him) is a Liverpool-based producer, interested in art as activism, personal/societal change through radical arts, and queering everything. With a background in theatre and arts participation, he is now producer for Homotopia, the UK’s longest running LGBTQIA arts festival, where he is growing year round talent development and youth programmes, and the size and scope of the festival. When he’s not at Homotopia, he is the host and producer of Liverpool’s premier spoken word night, A Lovely Word, based at the Liverpool Everyman. He also freelance produces multi-award winning music shows and regularly presents work at the Edinburgh fringe. He is currently producing Y’MAM at the Liverpool Everyman this June 2021.
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Open Rooms is Open Eye Gallery’s online programme. It involves free live-streamed talks and workshops, plus ongoing public discussions on our Discord community. It takes place in rooms all across the world — artists’ rooms, chat rooms and in your living room.
Open Rooms is livestreamed to our Twitch channel, an online streaming service.
We also have a community of chat rooms and ongoing conversations on Discord, a free messaging app open to all. To join, follow this link and download Discord on desktop or mobile.
Due to unforeseen circumstances, this event will be postponed. We will be rescheduling similar events in the future. Please sign up to our newsletter for event updates.
As the country grapples with adjusting to social distancing laws, social meetups have transferred onto online realms, creating new digital spaces for gathering. But how have things changed for those who have always been separated from their communities?
During LGBT History Month, our tenth Open Rooms event examines the history of documenting LGBTQ+ lives outside of queer spaces. The panel will discuss photographing LGBTQ+ lives in cities that don’t have a staple queer scene, how photography can amplify visibility for those who are underrepresented in the public queer sphere, and how lockdown has changed and impacted the historical spaces carved out for queer folk across the UK.
Panellists:
Kelly Stubbs Kelly has a background working as an Art and Media educator, across a variety of schools, FE colleges and universities. After struggling with her gender for the majority of her life, Kelly was finally able to support herself openly living and working as a Transgender woman in 2018. From an initial opportunity working for Liverpool Biennial, Kelly launched Transmission Art Project and threw her energies into organising Liverpool’s first Trans Pride in 2019. Transmission Art’s latest initiative is ‘Ports In A Storm’, which is a project geared towards helping marginalised communities participate more fully in public life & will launch at this year’s Light Night events. Kelly currently coordinates the Phoenix LGBT+ youth groups for the Proud Trust across Cheshire, as well as producing her own art work under the moniker ‘notgeorgestubbs’.
Kiara Mohamed (b.1990) is a trans, multidisciplinary artist based in Toxteth, Liverpool. His work focuses on identity, social issues and the role art plays in our lives in addressing these issues. He uses photography, poetry, film and drone photography to comment on post-colonial ideas and reflect on his background and the community he lives in. His work has been screened at Tate Liverpool and the British Museum with most recent projects for Savera UK and Homotopia 2020 shared online and installed in Liverpool Anglican Cathedral. A new commission of photographs has been acquired for the University of Salford Art Collection in partnership with Open Eye Gallery.
Alex Ferguson (he/him) is a Liverpool-based producer, interested in art as activism, personal/societal change through radical arts, and queering everything. With a background in theatre and arts participation, he is now producer for Homotopia, the UK’s longest running LGBTQIA arts festival, where he is growing year round talent development and youth programmes, and the size and scope of the festival. When he’s not at Homotopia, he is the host and producer of Liverpool’s premier spoken word night, A Lovely Word, based at the Liverpool Everyman. He also freelance produces multi-award winning music shows and regularly presents work at the Edinburgh fringe. He is currently producing Y’MAM at the Liverpool Everyman this June 2021.
–
Open Rooms is Open Eye Gallery’s online programme. It involves free live-streamed talks and workshops, plus ongoing public discussions on our Discord community. It takes place in rooms all across the world — artists’ rooms, chat rooms and in your living room.
Open Rooms is livestreamed to our Twitch channel, an online streaming service.
We also have a community of chat rooms and ongoing conversations on Discord, a free messaging app open to all. To join, follow this link and download Discord on desktop or mobile.
