Between 2015 and 2016, Rosie Hastings and Hannah Quinlan traveled the UK while making UK Gay Bar Directory (UKGBD) (2015–16), a video archive of LGBTQ social spaces. In the wake of the financial crisis of 2007- 2008, the Conservative government’s rollout of fiscal austerity had contributed to the closure of nightlife venues across the country. UKGBD is a record of public queer culture, legal in the UK for a little more than fifty years, now at risk of extinction. Since completing the archive, the artist duo has continued to explore the politics, histories, and aesthetics of queer space, shining a light on a complex terrain in which questions of class, nationalism, gentrification, and patriarchy often collide, particularly in the shadow of Brexit. As their work shows, “G” is by a long stretch the best-represented letter of the LGBTQ family. While gay bars and clubs provide a sense of community for men across the UK, they appeal to a predominantly white clientele, and often incorporate militaristic decor—aspects of a culture critically at odds with the metropolitan, politically aware, university educated, newly invigorated manifestation of queer identity.

BIOGRAPHIES

Hannah Quinlan & Rosie Hastings (b. 1991. Newcastle, London) are a London-based artist duo known for their exploration of queer identity, urban spaces, and social politics. Their practice is multi-disciplinary encompassing; fresco painting, drawing, video, performance, print-making, publishing and installation. Grounded in researching how various communities have been represented throughout history, they interpret social and political issues by drawing from art history and archives. Their work invites viewers to question their relationships with space, power dynamics, social hierarchy, class, order, and obedience within our public spaces

Recent solo shows include Bleak House, Kunsthall Stavanger, Stavanger, NO (2023); Inside, Huset For Kunst & Design, Holstebro, DK (2023); Art Now, Tate Modern, London, UK (2022); Inside, Kunsthalle Osnabrück, DE (2022); In My Room, Mostyn, Wales, UK (2020); and Humber Street Gallery, Hull, UK (2020).

Related to the exhibition: Joie noire