(S)exhibition - The Museum of Sex Objects

(S)exhibition is a collaboration between the Museum of Sex Objects and a group of incredible queer women/artists who work in the sex industry.

This installation explores the normalcy of sex work and the performative nature of pleasure. Representing the duality of identity that many sex workers experience due to the nature of their work, it offers insight into where those competing personas clash.

As many sex workers practise from home, the exhibition draws on the ordinariness of home juxtaposed with the theatre of sex work. Banal household objects, such as a chest of drawers and fridge doors, are co-opted as canvases to tell these artists' stories. These objects mirror the duality in a sex worker's life, the “pressures of curating and performing fake identities” with the real queer women outside of the male gaze. In doing so, our wish is to provide a more holistic and whole identity to sex workers as a way of nurturing empathy and understanding, leading to a more united sisterhood.

The exhibition opens to the public on May 3rd and runs until the end of May. Alongside the installation, we will be hosting a variety of events and workshops to explore themes relating to the history of sex work and identity more deeply.

This show would not be possible without our fine fellowship of collaborators and the generosity of Lyall @VFDalston for hosting (S)exhibition. Thank you X

Guided Tours

7pm for 7.15 start, finishes 8.30pm

Every Wednesday, the Keeper will be hosting guided tours of the (S)exhibition to delve deep into the history of the pieces. Tickets are £10 or £15 with a glass of wine or beer. What better way to spend a Wednesday evening?

To Weaponise, To Fetishise - Friday 10th May, 7-9pm

Extrapolating from the piece Narratives, Counternarratives, Chao-Ying Rao (Betty) will be speaking about her personal experiences growing up as an East Asian woman in Scotland, and how she learned to weaponise and manipulate being fetishised as a form of survival. She will discuss feminism in relation to sex work, and as well as her own experiences as a way providing context for her instillation. Unpacking the nuances around objectification - an often-uncompromising word which requires some deeper analysis, she will talk about objectification as escapism through ritual and performance.

East London Stripper Collective host life-drawing - Saturday, 11th May, 2-5pm

Life Drawing with ELSC first launched in 2013 as a natural progression from the age-old practice of hiring professional harlots and hussies as models for art. This fast-paced class often involves high-octane aerial pole poses. The workshop will incorporate some traditional life drawing with a couple of 5-, 10-, and 15-minute poses. No experience needed—newcomers welcome!

Histories of Sapphism, Sex and Sorcery  - Friday 17th May, 7-8.30pm

From persecution to Pride, sapphic women have always been intertwined with histories of witchcraft. But why? Join sapphic scholar Mara Gold on a magical journey through the ages, exploring how spirituality and spellcasting became entrenched in sapphic culture. From communing with lesbians of antiquity to sex rituals, you don’t have to look far to find magic in sapphic history.

Fallen Women -Saturday 18th May, 7-8.30pm

A night of sexually charged enchantment with Folk singer-songwriter Liz Overs in conversation with Museum of Sex Objects storyteller The Keeper.

They explore through music and objects, the unsung folk hero, the sex worker.

Chasing this spirited, cruel beauty, carrier of disease, fair maid, poor young girl, and wronged woman across time.

She is the container of all society's projected fears. What a burden to bear!

Hopefully, by shining a light on her, the wrongs she has endured for millennia will be a small way to being righted

Self-Defence Weekend Special - Saturday 25th   May, 2-5.30pm

Forced underground and denied the protection afforded to most members of society, marginalised groups have had to find a means of resistance that not only keeps them safe, but builds community in the process. Sex workers are no different, and as some of societies most vulnerable people, have historically used all the tools available - physical, mental and social - to protect us from harm.

Part 1: Join Black Venus in a self - defence workshop for sex-workers and survivors. Learn basic, tried and tested techniques that both protect and empower. Learn Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Muay Thai striking techniques that can be employed in self-defence situations on the ground, standing up and in confined spaces. The workshop will be integrated with conversations led by Venus on the topic of who deserves to be protected and how stigma influences policies that harms sex workers, survivors, women and GNC people from all walks of life?

 Part 2: Did you know sex workers in the 15th Century used makeshift pepper spray to defend

themselves? Join Fiona Carroll to delve deeper into the role self-defence has in the history

of sex work. This talk will explore the methods of social protection and defence employed

against persecution and how community was used as a form of protection.

Writing Intimacy - Sunday 26th of May 2-4pm

This writing workshop will explore how to write intimacy authentically. Hosted by two sex worker writers and artists, Annabelle and Bella, for whom intimacy represents the primary tool of their trades, both in the sex and creative industries. Intimacy isn’t one specific thought or action, it is the feeling of knowing and being known, and a lot of the best writing situates this experience in surprising places. In this workshop, we will use writing to explore experiences of intimacy. Some may be sexual, but they can also be as subtle as revealing just a tiny detail of your inner world, such as a small habit or ritual.

Annie & Beth - photo Claire Lawrie

Hearth - photo Claire Lawrie

Cautary Clamp - photo Claire Lawrie

Madame of the Whip - photo Claire Lawrie

Soho Window - photo Jorge Monedero

The Hite Report - photo Claire Lawrie

Mixed Rage: Unapologetically Other

Unapologetically Other

Mixed Rage Collective

Mixed Rage collective showcases artworks exploring lived experiences of being ‘othered’. This significant group exhibition, by artists from Mixed heritage, use their creativity as an outlet to celebrate their interracial roots as well as expressing their anger of being perceived and treated differently.

At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, conversations between artists Sevonah Golabi and Niall Singh sparked the Mixed Rage project. After found validation and solidarity in similar experiences, Golabi held an open call for artists from Mixed ethnicities. The response to collaborate within this safe space was overwhelming. The newly formed collective created Mixed Rage Zine’s as a platform wherein they published the submitted poems, stories, and artworks.

Through ‘Unapologetically Other’ the collective seeks to address the lack of representation, daily micro-aggressions and displacement felt by people of Mixed ethnicities and the highly political and colonial backdrop into which they were born.

‘Unapologetically Other’ offers a point of connection to appreciate the identity journey of being Mixed-race. The multifaceted components and nuances are reflected in the remarkable artworks. These range from multimedia to an art film exploring lost identity, and from political multi-layered collages to intimate family portraits. With this exhibition Mixed Rage offers a broader narrative and a place of recognition and belonging for people of Mixed heritage.

Artists: Jane Thakoordin, Niall Singh, Sevonah Golabi, Sherrie Edgar and Sina Leasuasu

Special thanks to Dominique Nok, the curator for the first version of this show at the Midlands Art Centre in Birmingham 2022

Just Coping 25

JUST COPING 25 is an exhibition at VFD Gallery, Dalston that documents and celebrates a hybrid, queer arts event that took place in the borough twenty-five years earlier, in August 1998.

Featuring JUSTIN VIVIAN BOND, KENNY MELLMAN, TOM STEPHAN, FIL OK, JAMES B.L. HOLLANDS and many more.

The original JUST COPING event at 333 Club featured visual artists, filmmakers, fanzines, drag cabaret and DJs in a hybrid celebration of LGBT+ creatives working outside of the mainstream. JUST COPING 25 at VFD will take the form of an immersive installation, showcasing ephemera from the 1998 event and utilising audio testimony from the original participants, in a celebration of independent queer culture, history and survival in Hackney.

Date and Time:

01st February: Private View 18:30-21:30

02nd-29th February 2024: Saturdays and Sundays 12pm - 4pm . Gallery open during the week by appointment.

Rooms 1-6 by Ellie English

Rooms 1 - 6

Ellie English

Rooms 1-6 presents short sequences of photographs in conversation with one another, shifting storylines are presented where there are no absolutes and everything believed to be true lacks certainty. The photograph here exists as a chess piece in a state of play.

Suggested themes of death and sexual violence appear and reappear throughout the work, as does a sense of loss and loneliness. From room to room the work reflects back on to itself as the viewer attempts to piece together narratives and form an understanding of what it is they are being shown. The role of the viewer here is not to attempt to piece together my life, but to recognise feelings within themselves. This contemplation demands a vulnerability, for the viewer to see the work through their own histories.

For now Rooms 1 - 6 exist in miniature form, small worlds of imagined spaces. Yet they are destined to become ‘life sized’, where the image of heaviness actually has weight, and photographs about space will demand recognition of the space they physically occupy.

The viewer is invited to imagine themselves within these spaces, exploring individual ‘rooms’ where photographs would be large objects, several of which are inaccessible, hiding behind or below others. Meaning exists here, but in order for it to reveal itself the viewer is required to make the effort of participating.

With a special thanks to my friend and fellow artist Kenny Ross, one of the few people I discuss my practice with. I’m grateful for our conversations, they have played a big role in the development of this project. Thank you for the support of Fatima at Open Doors and for Lyall Hakaraia at VFD for allowing me to exhibit within their wonderful space. The heaviness of life seems to rarely lift, yet I’m surrounded by so much love and support.

My Mum and my friends are the best family anyone could ask for, thank you for sticking by me through these last couple of years. Our laughter gives me strength.

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VFDalston

64 Stoke Newignton Road, London, N16 7XB

10th August - 26th September 2023

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Photographic artist Ellie English was born and raised in South East London, currently living in East London. Documentation is at the core of her practice, over the last 8 years she has worked solely on FujiFilm Instax. She began shooting on instant film in 2014 whilst studying BA Photography at Falmouth University. In 2020 Ellie completed a Masters degree (with distinction) in Fine Art at the University of East London. Using the juxtaposition of images, her practice confronts the viewer with storylines whose details are often incomplete. Playing on the power of suggestion, the viewer becomes active investigator into what has taken place beyond that which they are explicitly shown.

For print sales or any other enquires please email elliegraceenglish@hotmail.com

NINEBOB WAS HERE: Putting the DRAMA back into DioRAMA

Robert 'Ninebob' Beach is a 53 year old gay artist living with HIV. Born in London he grew up in his family’s B&B in Victoria. Now running the business and being a full-time carer for his 94-year-old mother who suffers from dementia.

My rebel fantasy 2022

Lip sink for your life. 'Does exactly what it says on the compact'. The commercial success of underground rebellious cultures. Non-conforming art forms become mainstream their own deadly 'forever chemicals.

Materials Featured: His mum's old compact, 00 figures from my dad's model railway train collection. An old bit of Weve Pink pen

Ninebob's life is claustrophobic. With little or no downtime or any personal space, his art-making is a therapy that allows him to find balance and joy while working through his memories, emotions and experiences. Prone to depression and battling addictions the artworks are a way through his anxiety, an outlet towards better mental health, stability and well-being.

Dark Room 2023

Never really found the the whole Dark Room experience that sexy. I’m short-sighted and deaf in one ear and really clumsy so these spaces are not for me, plus I’m too much of a face man I like to look into an eye.

But I do find them funny and fascinating and a good place to do a bmp of drugs. The fun and the secrets that go on behind PVC curtains. Materials Featured: Job lot playtoy figures from a local charity shop and paired with gloss Kit, bashed toy sets, Cardboard, Black 3.0 on walls

Graf picks printed Rubber curtains, pink pen work, Glue gun, cum mini strobe, and LED lights.

He describes himself as 'Bob' of all trades, master of none, has been around the block at least 7 times, brought the T-shirt and lost it, customised it, and lost it again. In a constant gay state of play with a glue gun. He comes from the school of appreciating “Brilliant Shit” and is passionate about the street as a gallery and reads the writing on the walls.

Cum ear u rebel scum 2019

'My crush on Han Solo/ Harrison Ford/ Indiana Jones was a definite early realisation that I was homosexual. I had countless obsessions with Han Solo and fighting in rebellion with him, and riding away with him on the back of a Tauntaun.'

Materials Featured: flocked legs and snow, penis made in China, expanding foam and glue gun cum. The piece is made from Ninebob's precious and beloved Star Wars toy collection and used because of its water-damaged 'original collectable box'.

The work is made from the lost and found objects, hand-me-downs, dregs of drag, his family’s old toys, charity shop finds, model Railway, inherited models from his passed dad's air-fix and Harry Potter figurine hoard. His imagination never stops and is limitless and infused with a 'glue gun super glue sticky back sellotape' and a wish and a prayer.

Kaz meaner pink hair 2022

Deeper, Deeper, Deeper!!

Inspired by true events, my first time in San Francisco in 1999, after copious amounts of liquid LSD, and a whole day, was at the open-air gay sex fair, Folsom Street Fair.

I lost everyone, wandering the streets in my dream-like state, I remember seeing the Wendy's burger chain sign, and I walked towards the promise of burgers. I could see a crowd and heard the thump of bass from music and everyone chanting and screaming.

Obviously distracted, I went over to see what was going on and everyone was screaming.

Deeper, Deeper, Deeper !!

As I came closer, I realise the crowd was congregating around the bus stop and on the top of the bus stop and a queue of guys waiting to sit on a massive dildo!

Deeper, Deeper, Deeper!!

Materials Featured: WWF figure and Pali toy set. Finger bandage penis from China.

glue gun, various toy shops, charity finds kit, bashed toys, photocopied, bus stops sine spray, paint black dildo from Roxylee

His new work is a stream-of-consciousness diorama that explores Gay role play, downloading his internal chitter chatter, marking points of trauma, injustice, decay, and from death to joy.

In his own words, it’s all in the process! It is where time stops and making art starts and flows. I know it all will be alright when mumma's bell rings for the last time.'

B-boys Cottage too! 2020

I spent a long time in the closet. The cottage and cruising were where I had my early and informative sexual experiences. Long before the invention of the Internet and a 5G handset.

'I sat there on a toilet, waiting, waiting and waiting till my arse froze, walking out, washing my hands, standing far too long at the hand dryer, sticking toilet paper into the holes, pushing toilet paper out of the holes, hoping someone pulls the toilet paper out the holes, then someone to walk in and look through that hole. Who made the hole ?! '

'Cruising, still to this day they have been some of my best sexual experiences and truth be told I miss it.'

'No communication, no names, gesture and silence, quick simple and full of gay shame. If you know you know !'

Materials Featured: Figures for my toy collection that was flood damaged. Cardboard box line mode. Graffitied pen work. Toilet made from yoghurt pots, various dolls house pieces, real toilet paper, gorilla glue, toilet holders half a ping-pong

Ninebob's new artwork explores his adult anxiety and experiences through childhood objects which he translates into playful dialogues. While it is easy to see the work as naive and unvarnished the attention to detail, personal narratives and layers of meta-meaning and inferences which makes these works poignant and urgent.

For further enquires / Instagram @ninebobrob_bent_as