In this new talk coinciding with Hard Man is Good to Find!, artist and curator Guy Burch and writer Jason Okundaye discuss the way queer experiences and representation are centred in their work. We will reflect on historic examples of queer erasure in books and museums to more recent strategies implemented by institutions to include stories that were typically held at the periphery – stories that are now also the focal point of exhibitions.

Looking specifically at visual culture, we ask how, through collecting and sharing queer stories, we can honour the plurality of the queer experience. Burch and Okyndaye will consider their own roles in recording these histories and the critical role patrons and collectors have always had in preserving queer lives.

Moderated by Helena Kate Whittingham (Lover Management). 

Details on how to access this event will be confirmed upon registration. Please check your junk folders if you haven't received an email from TPG staff confirming your place.

Biographies

Guy Burch is an artist, writer, independent curator and collector of physique photography. His book Model Men, Physique Photography & Illustration Before 1967, was published in 2017. He was a Co-Director of Brixton Art Gallery, during the 1980s: a pioneering collective gallery that held ground breaking exhibitions of work largely absent from the mainstream, including in 1983 the first open queer art show in Britain. Heavily involved with AIDS activism, the experience left Guy with a strong sense of the transience and fragility of the queer historical record. He is a patron of Queer Britain Museum and member of their collections panel.

Jason Okundaye is a writer from South London. His first book Revolutionary Acts: Black Gay Men in Britain will be published by Faber & Faber in March 2024.

Lover Management is headed up by Helena Kate Whittingham, a frankly lusty woman with criminal sartorial taste. She has a deep and multifaceted experience of working with The Erotic, and due to her innate ability to connect people has honed a speciality of talent management within the Sex realm. Ex- assistant Curator at VITRINE Gallery, she is also an occasional model, erotic writer, and shares a collaborative curatorial and creative practice with her partner, Harlan Whittingham.

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