At the Science Gallery, next to Kings College London, they are running an exhibition about Gender. Personal experiences form the starting point, looking beyond the simple binary categories of male and female. Individual stories and their broader contexts reveal an entanglement of social and biological factors. We all play a role in shaping genders and in this exhibition are invited to “consider language and law, clothing and chemicals, and other tools and technologies that influence our behaviour and social conditions”.
I loved this exhibition and want to go back over the time it is running. There is a huge variety in the work and I was particularly captivated by Danielle Brathwraite-Shirley’s WE ARE HERE BECAUSE OF THOSE THAT ARE NOT, because it gave black trans people a safe space, and a place to be heard unapologetically. As a trans non-binary human, I felt held and accepted in this space, but it was also brought to my attention that I could use my white privilege to help this community. I really liked the visuals of the game, which I later discovered serve as part of the archive, and the avatars were designed by trans and non-binary young creatives.
When I first walked into the exhibition I took a bright orange sticker with the word ‘they’. This exhibition made me feel seen and understood. I think it is so important that exhibitions like this exist, exploring social narratives in interesting and different ways. It is a place where I can find many LGBTQ artists and a place that makes our community feel less alone and more heard.
The exhibition inspires me to be experimental in my work and to look at things through different perspectives. It also makes me feel less afraid to create something that goes off on a tangent because it probably isn’t a tangent, gender exists within everything in our society.
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