UN//TITLED An Anthology of Queer Contemporary Art // 2016-2020 by Balaclava.Q

UN//TITLED was printed for the occasion of the 5 year anniversary of Balaclava.Q Balaclava.Q was established 12th June 2016

Balaclava.Q is an International Queer Visual Art Project (+ Collective) Connecting, Promoting and Creating Platforms for Queer Artists #balaclavadotq // @balaclava.q // @balaclavaDOTq www.linktr.ee/balaclava.q UN//TITLED First edition (Limited Edition of 200 copies): Issue Number _________ of 200 Concept, Design, Edited + Produced by Stiofan O’Ceallaigh © Balaclava.Q Projects + Stiofan O’Ceallaigh (2021) Publication: UN//TITLED An Anthology of Queer Contemporary Art // 2016-2020 All texts © of the artists and authors All works of art © the individual artists + Balaclava.Q Image copyright remains with the artists and Balaclava.Q as applicable and all images appear courtesy of the artist Any views expressed within UN//TITLED are those of the individual artists and are not necessarily those of Balaclava.Q Image (front cover): Untitled (2016), digital image by Artmando Bravo (Mexico) Image (inside, front and back cover): Untitled (2021), by Ron Kibble (USA) commissioned by Balaclava.Q Image (back cover): Unselfy RE:Appropriated (2021) by Stiofan O’Ceallaigh (UK)

Image (below): SMELL OF YOUR SKIN GLIMPSE OF YOUR BODY IS GLEE OF JOY (2019), digital image by Satadru Sovan (India) Exhibited as part of Balaclava.Q Tactic 4 project BORDERS - What’s Up With That? Part of queer arts festival Civil Disobedience ‘Residente O Visitante’ at Romantso Gallery, Athens (Greece)

Balaclava.Q // An International Queer Visual Art Project (+ Collective) Connecting, Promoting and Creating Platforms for Queer Artists There are many links between art, creativity, mental health and emotional wellbeing. In fact, to make art is to: document, imagine and/or purge. By embracing creativity we allow ourselves opportunities to interconnect, celebrate uniqueness and to leave indelible traces of ourselves. And with all of this in mind Balaclava.Q was launched as a platform to elevate Queer art and to amplify Queer voices. Established 2016 Balaclava.Q is an international, volunteer and artist-led not-forprofit which has been supporting the LGBTQ+ community since 2016. We present work by artists who identify as LGBTQ+, or other, which in turn acts as a communities-generator around shared themes and experiences. For the past year the world has been tentatively navigating the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout this period we have become increasingly, physically disconnected from one another, and while standard art sharing practices such as exhibitions and art events have become challenging to achieve (offline), it became pertinent and necessary to devise and produce a new project to help focus minds. Something positive, something tangible, and something aligned with our core purpose of connecting, promoting and creating platforms for Queer artists. And so it is with great pride that I welcome you to UN//TITLED - An Anthology of Queer Contemporary Art (2016-2020). It is intended that UN//TITLED will act as both a portfolio, and an advocacy document for Balaclava.Q, and in doing so will celebrate the art, the artists, and the collaborative projects which span the 2016 to 2020 period. To create UN//TITLED Balaclava.Q brought together over 70 creatives from 25 countries, across 5 continents. At the core of this project sits the UN//TITLED Selected Artists section: a selection panel made up of experienced artists and arts organisers were tasked with choosing art from 473 individual submissions which they feel best represents Balaclava.Q. Alongside the Selected Artists section and scattered throughout this book you will also find the Spotlight Artworks, these are some of my personal favourites, but more importantly they offer up themes and contexts unexplored in other areas of this book, which I feel further enriches the overall offer. There is also an interactive element to UN//TITLED: dispersed throughout the book you will find a series of QR codes, which when scanned with your smartphone, will take you to Balaclava.Q online content relevant to the page you are currently reading. Exclusive to UN//TITLED we have contributions in the form of 3 Forewords which reflect upon the aims, activities and outcomes of Balaclava.Q and UN//TITLED through 3 very specific lenses. The Forewords have been generously written and provided by John Hopper (of Inspirational magazine, UK), who looks at Balaclava.Q and UN//TITLED within a contemporary art context, more specifically with regards to contemporary art self-publishing, then David Acosta (of Casa de Duende + Wicked Gay Ways, USA), will look at this project through the lens of artist collectives and art as activism, and Ms Lottie Barnes (Culture, Arts + Health Manager, Guernsey, UK) will provide an arts and health insight into Balaclava.Q. Also exclusive to UN//TITLED are 4 new commissions by USA based artist Ron Kibble, who has used content from UN//TITLED as inspiration to create the compelling, captivating and motivational artwork on the inside covers of this book. The final contribution is posthumously provided by Art Historian + Queer Theorist Dr Robert Summers PhD (of Queer Art Network, USA), who touches on the importance of Queer self-publishing, more specifically Queer zines: their history and their function in the context of the artwork of Vaginal Davis created between 1982 and 1991. UN//TITLED is by no means an exhaustive and complete review of all contemporary Queer art, but is reflective of the art promoted and featured on Balaclava.Q and the submissions we receive. Currently 85% of submissions are from gay, bisexual or MSM, and while I don’t consider this a major issue it does present an opportunity to actively expand the scope and reach of this project moving forward. It is important for me to reiterate that Balaclava.Q embraces the wide spectrum of definitions of LGBTQIA+ and we are inclusive of all members of our gloriously diverse global community. If you are new to Balaclava.Q and want to get involved, you will find further information at the back of UN//TITLED. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate and thank everyone who has contributed to UN//TITLED and to the success of Balaclava.Q Projects (2016 to current). Thank you for your passion, your bravery, your time, your creativity and your kinship. I really hope you enjoy UN//TITLED.

Stiofan O’Ceallaigh (2021) Balaclava.Q Founder + Director

SPOTLIGHT ARTWORK — Different Doesn’t Mean Wrong (2019), acrylic on canvas by Jasmina Krajačić (Croatia) Featured as part of Balaclava.Q Tactic 3 project Abstract Activism and exhibited as part of Tactic 4 project BORDERS What’s Up With That? (2020). Part of Civil Disobedience exhibition ‘Residente O Visitante’ at Romantso Gallery, Athens (Greece)

BALACLAVA.Q // An introduction EDITOR’S FOREWORD: DEMYSTIFYING QUEER ART In art terms ‘Queer’ is an over-arching category title which pulls together a variety of minority artist demographics (LGBTQIA+) under one banner, commonly known as ‘Queer art’, it’s nearest “neighbour” being feminist art, which informed identity politics and Queer art practice post-1980. However, in its broadest term ‘Queer art’, also known as Queer aesthetics or LGBTQ+ art, refers to modern and contemporary visual art that draws on LGBTQ+ imagery, themes, experiences and concerns. Tied to Queer art is Queer Art Theory which is constantly evolving in response to rapidly changing social conditions. And similar to ‘Minimalist’ and ‘Feminist’ art, ‘Queer’ art is simply another genre of art, and should be approached as such. When asked about how to understand contemporary art, iconic Queer film director John Waters said: “to understand contemporary art you must first believe in it” which alludes to the fact that if you “don’t believe” in something, you are - in essence rejecting it and/or invalidating it, something with which LGBTQ+ people have had to become personally accustomed to. Often ostracised or rejected by their communities and policy makers, Queers are forced to seek out new tribes based on mutual understandings and kinship. Queer art, like Queer artists, can be problematic simply because of the world they are created in. As a community, LGBTQ+ people are defined and distinguished from other members of society by the type of sex that we have, and therefore it should really come as no surprise to anyone that Queer art often references sex. Too often deemed “invalid” or “pornographic” Queer art in the public realm -- especially on “social” media -- is being strategically and inconsistently censored, making it challenging, and sometimes impossible for LGBTQ+ artists to communicate, share, connect and generate audiences for their work. At time of print it has been announced by Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg that he will be creating an Instagram “just for kids” which may provide scope and an opportunity for the relaxing of censorship of Queer art on Instagram. But Queer art isn’t just about sex, it is also about (be)longing: longing for love, acceptance and change. Queer art is also political, which means that Queer art can also be “dangerous”. LGBTQ+ artists regularly overcome said challenges with acts of (in)visibility and/or defiance, often with repercussions for the artist. As Queer artists, we push back and counter the “status quo”. We create and disseminate survival techniques for each other contained within our art. We infiltrate the hegemonic art world via mechanisms such as codification and symbolism. And since the late 1980s Queer artists have been openly (loudly and proudly), making art that identifies, progresses, transgresses and transforms. In more recent years the Western contemporary art world has proven itself proactive in breaking down the barriers to LGBTQ+ equality: we live in a time of rapid change in which major international museums and galleries are actively “Queering” their collections to reveal the hidden people and stories contained within. This important work is complimented by landmark exhibitions highlighting Queer themes and concerns such as the touring USA exhibition Art AIDS America (2016), and major UK show Queer British Art (1861-1967), at Tate Britain (2017), to name a few. However, on a global scale Queer art dissemination is often a grassroots effort, sporadic, guerrilla, and seemingly inaccessible to some audiences. In presenting Queer art the role of the viewer is of course important too, which can raise some interesting questions and scenarios, for example: Do the viewers preconceived notions of sex and sexuality impact their experience and interpretation of Queer art? Can Queer art alter the perceptions and attitudes of the viewer? If an artist is LGBTQ+ is their art automatically ‘Queer’? If the viewer is Queer does the art become Queer(ed)? Can a heterosexual artist make Queer art? Time will reveal the answer to some of these questions. The (im)possibilities are endless. To understand Queer art you must invest in it and commit to the experience. In an effort to demystify Queer art I would suggest trying the “TABULA RASA” (which translates from Latin as “clean slate”) mnemonic devised by Ossian Ward and presented in Ways of Looking: How To Experience Contemporary Art (first published 2014). Ward’s strategy for viewing all contemporary art (which includes Queer art), states that to get the best experience possible from contemporary art the committed viewer must first: spend Time with the artwork, and then find an Association (based on form, medium, tone or content). Next the viewer should consider the Background of the work (which includes the when and where the art was made), which will, in turn, help the viewer Understand why the work was made. When you feel you understand the work as a whole: the where + the when = the why, Ward suggests you Look again with your newly discovered understanding, and then you can make your final Assessment. If mainstream art audiences can (re-)overcome the “shock” of the nude in art - as we have done so in many great artistic periods, such as the Renaissance - then art and non-art audiences will be presented with a cacophony of new narratives and potential(s) communicated through said art. The savvy art viewer should therefore take it for granted that most Queer art is - by definition - about (un)authorised desires, sex and/or (be)longing. The themes and subtexts within Queer art are as infinite as the spectrum of sexualities of the artists who produce it. And so to conclude and expand upon John Waters earlier quote to understand Queer “art you must first believe in it”.

THE ETYMOLOGY OF ‘BALACLAVA.Q’ What’s in a name? A “balaclava” is a close-fitting garment covering the head and neck except for parts of the face, typically made of wool and worn by activists and protestors, the most famous of which being Queer art collective Pussy Riot (Russia).

The “dot” (“.”), is a historical reference to the beginnings of this project as a solely online features platform (with an MS DOS aesthetic, design and branding), and the “Q” obviously stands for Queer.

BACKGROUND The Balaclava.Q project was launched in 2016, on the day of - and in reaction to - the Pulse Nightclub Massacre (12th June 2016, Florida, USA), where 49 people were killed and 53 others wounded for no other reason than they were LGBTQ+. While reckoning with the atrocity, and at the same time witnessing constant censorship of Queer art on social media, Balaclava.Q was created to negate some of the negative aftershocks produced by the atrocity, and to help counteract the censorship of Queer artists. Fast forward to 2021 and Balaclava.Q is approaching its 5 year anniversary. In that time this project has organically shapeshifted from an online features platform to a collective of artists that congregate and unite to produce curatorial projects. All of which falls under the banner of ‘Balaclava.Q Projects’ and feeds into the legacy element of this project, whereby the online Artist Features element of Balaclava.Q has grown to become a digital archive of international Queer contemporary art.

The Balaclava.Q project functions strategically under 4 distinct strands (or tactics), in which artists are invited to contribute artworks that explore Queer themes and/or concerns. The current Balaclava.Q tactics for Queer self expression are:

TACTIC 1 // OBSCURING THE FACE Art that employs the tactic of obscuring the face. Obscuring the face is a popular cultural mechanism and aesthetic choice for the Queer community; from drag artists to club kids, activists to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, to aspects BDSM, covering the face provides an opportunity for freedom of expression. It doesn’t mean anything inherently — and is not necessarily about hiding, but does provide safety to some and empowerment to others.

TACTIC 2 // MOVING IMAGE Any type of moving image is accepted in this category including, but not limited to: film, documentary, video art, GIFs, animation, documented acts, programmes, interviews, performances, broadcasts, digital, etc.

TACTIC 3 // ABSTRACT ACTIVISM Tactic 3 is the “polar-opposite” of Tactic 1. For Tactic 3 Balaclava.Q seeks art which explores visibility and/or shows the face. Abstract forms of activism - in this context - are concerned with promoting visibility; where the very act of visibility becomes a form of activism in its own right. Tactic 1 and 3 combine to make up the Artist Features element of Balaclava.Q: a virtual space where both artistic temperaments of ‘anonymity’ and ‘visibility’ are made compatible and bolster one another as contemporary Queer methods of collective expression on said (in)visibilities.

TACTIC 4 // BALACLAVA.Q PROJECTS + COLLABORATIONS Balaclava.Q collaborative projects include: the 2016, and 2017 HIVideo film festival screened at various venues across the world, an exhibition titled HE Questioning + Queering “Masculinity” at LAST Projects gallery, Los Angeles (USA, 2017), an exhibition within an exhibition as part of Queer art festival Civil Disobedience: Residente O Visitante at Romantso Gallery, Athens, titled BORDERS - What’s Up With That? (2020-21), and the most recent project is the publication titled UN//TITLED An Anthology of Queer Contemporary Art // 2016-2020.

STATISTICS // 2016 - 2020 • • • • • • •

PROMOTING + CONNECTING ARTISTS: We sourced, featured and promoted the work of 373 emerging and established LGBTQ+ artists from 47 countries, spanning 5 continents, ARTIST OPPORTUNITIES + PLATFORMS: We created 546 individual opportunities for LGBTQ+ artists to exhibit their art, CURATORIAL PROJECTS: We devised and produced 4 transcultural curatorial projects in 4 years, and to facilitate these projects SUPPORTERS + PARTNERS: We brokered relationships with 40+ venues and partners who kindly offered support-inkind, and VOLUNTEERS: 134 international volunteers generously gave their time and skills to realise Balaclava.Q Projects, COMMUNITY + AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT: 1,523 people have attended our international art events, and ONLINE AUDIENCE: At time of print we have generated 59,462* views on our YouTube Channel and a combined 4,894 followers across our social media platforms and websites.

*In March 2021 the Balaclava.Q YouTube channel was deleted by YouTube for “breaching community standards”. Balaclava.Q will continue to seek out a permanent home for our moving image and film archive. 9

SPOTLIGHT ARTWORK — Siesta Nightmare (2019), soft sculpture installation by Alexander Hernandez (Mexico) Exhibited as part of Balaclava.Q Tactic 4 project BORDERS - What’s Up With That? (2020) Part of Civil Disobedience exhibition ‘Residente O Visitante’ at Romantso Gallery, Athens (Greece)

SPOTLIGHT ARTWORK — Medusa’s Blinding Love (2019), photographic print on aluminium by Ian et Jacques (Italy) Featured as part of Balaclava.Q Tactic 4 project Abstract Activism (2020)

‘UNTITLED’ // CONTEXTS + MILESTONES (1940 - Present): THE ART OF QUEER SURVIVAL ‘Untitled’ suggests both the adjective used to describe an artwork as having no name, and an artistic tactic used by Western artists since the 1940s. Though it has become the norm, the convention of giving titles to artworks has long been challenged by artists. It was Picasso who said “What good does it do, after all, to impart explanations?,” insisting he had nothing to do with the titles of his work. In the 1940s and 50s the Abstractionists and Expressionists used ‘Untitled’ as part of their reductive process; reducing their art to its basic elements of form and colour, and then proceeding this we have the Conceptualists and Minimalists of the 60s and 70s, who adopted ‘Untitled’ as part of their minimal visual and formal language. In the West, during the 1980s and early 90s, artists began exploring identity, including LGBTQ+ identity, and the relationship between art and politics took on a new significance, as did ‘Untitled’. For it was during the 80s and 90s that the gay community (specifically gay males), were under direct attack from a virus (HIV), and their own governments who flooded the airwaves with homophobic soundbites, for example, it is common knowledge that throughout the AIDS crisis Ronald Reagan notoriously never said the word “AIDS” because of its association with homosexuality, while at the same time in the UK, Margaret Thatcher made her infamous anti-gay speech in which she stated that “Children who need to be taught to respect traditional moral values are being taught that they have an inalienable right to be gay. All of those children are being cheated out of a sound start in life” (1987), while she simultaneously introduced the - now infamous - Section 28 of the Local Government Act (1988) which stated that a local authority “shall not intentionally promote homosexuality” or “… the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship”. After years of campaigning and protests Section 28 was eventually repealed in Scotland in 2000, and eventually in the rest of the UK in 2003. For LGBTQ+ artists making art in the late 80s and 90s ‘Untitled’ became supercharged with sublime new subtleties adopted so eloquently by artists such as David Wojnarowicz (1954-1992), and Felix Gonzalez-Torres (1957-1996), both of whom died of AIDS-related complications. Both artists used ‘Untitled’ as an indicator for loss, and also as a solemn commentary on the AIDS epidemic, while in stark contrast of tone the artist collective Gran Fury (USA), produced works that simply did not need titles, and therefore by default were ‘Untitled’. Gran Fury produced radical art pasted on street walls, subways and billboards as performative direct action in response to the lack of government action during AIDS epidemic. Many contemporary Queer artists acknowledge this legacy in their work, and they continue to deploy ‘Untitled’ as part of a wider strategy to transgress, transform and (de)personalise their art. Needless to say ‘Untitled’ is here to stay, which brings us nicely to the present day. It’s 2021, and we have arrived at another pivotal point - and contradiction - in the march for equality. The head of the Catholic church has just announced that they “cannot bless same sex unions” as it is “impossible for God to bless sin”, while in the UK, for the first time, British LGBT citizens will no longer be considered ‘Untitled’: as of 2021 the UK Office of National Statistics will begin counting its LGBT citizens in the UK Census asking questions based on gender and sexuality, which will then go on to ensure fairness and impartiality in government service provision and policy making. It is evident that a better world is possible and that we will never overcome hate unless we start with a personal and individual commitment to the cause. To quote Queer artist and prophet David Hoyle (a.k.a Divine David, UK) “there is still so much more work to do.”

UN//TITLED: To produce UN//TITLED Balaclava.Q issued a call out to all of the artists who had previously contributed to Balaclava.Q Projects. 473 individual artwork submissions were received and then a Selection Panel of experienced artists, curators and activists selected 60 artworks to appear in this book. The publicly personal art in UN//TITLED covers a wide variety of mediums which include (post-)photography, performance, painting, sculpture, digital, installation, wearable art, drawing and moving image. Together the UN//TITLED artists offer diverse and rich perspectives on Queer themes and concerns such as: masculinities + feminism, the political + the personal, (in)visibility + (im)possibility, trauma: anxiety + depression, the ugly + the beautiful, love + hate, dualism: the self + the other, sex + sensuality, art history + art theory, (self)censorship: freedom + repression, pride + shame, assumptions + acceptance, reproduction + gender, strength + vulnerability, place + space, identity + (be)longing, the body + the mind, (auto)biography + stories, isolation + family, youth + aging, HIV + AIDS, science + religion, aesthetics + culture, genealogies + mythologies, (un)becoming: transformation + transgression, exposure + intimacy, happiness + fear, the biological + the metaphysical, the past + the future and the here and now.

UN//TITLED has been curated in such a way that the artworks are presented in couplets, designed to respond to one another in various ways which include colour, medium, subject matter, composition, tone, confliction, and complimentary and disruptive connections. With contributions from David Acosta, John Hopper, Lottie Barnes, Dr Robert Summers PhD, Stiofan O’Ceallaigh and of course the selected artists, UN//TITLED celebrates and documents 4 years of Balaclava.Q Projects (2016 - 2020). The concept for UN//TITLED has been devised and curated by Stiofan O’Ceallaigh (2021).

SPOTLIGHT ARTWORK — FOLA [HEAL] iv (2018), digital photography by Sade Shoalane (Botswana) Featured as part of Balaclava.Q Tactic 4 project Abstract Activism (2018)

FOREWORD #1 – Arts + Health Creating art is said to be one of the unique qualities that make us human. From the earliest markings on cave walls, to the rhythmic beating of drums, cultural dance or the creation of written language, people have been driven to express themselves through art since the earliest days of our species. We are now truly beginning to understand, through science, how viewing and making art directly impacts on our health and wellbeing. Research has shown that engaging in just 45 minutes of art-making significantly reduces the levels of cortisol (the stress hormone). It has similar qualities to meditation as it forces the mind to slow down, helps us to focus on the details and blocks out the mind’s distraction. As a result, we feel calmer and less anxious. The world is taking notice and in 2019 the WHO (World Health Organisation) launched its first report on the evidence base for Arts and Health interventions. After analysing evidence from over 900 global publications (the most comprehensive review of evidence on Arts and Health to date) the key conclusion was engaging with the arts can be beneficial for both mental and physical health. Within this book a number of Artists discuss how they use the arts to support their health and wellbeing, sharing and exploring their lived experience. For example, Artist Artmando Bravo discusses how he prefers to use a pale palette to contrast and compliment aggressive states such anxiety and how he uses art to investigate and overcome these anxieties. Artist Hue Hale deliberates on how he uses photography cathartically as a method of therapy and his mental health is a common narrative within his work. UN//TITLED is also a book of stories. Stories are the way we understand and make sense of the world supporting human connection and have been used to hand down learning and knowledge for thousands of years. An evidenced based study revealed connection is one the 5 ways to wellbeing, simply put humans need human connection to be and stay well. Balaclava.Q project HIVideo provides a platform to break down that that can jeopardize human connection ‘shame and stigma.’ In 2010 I developed Living Positive (a project for Manchester (UK) based HIV charity Body Positive), a photography project exploring living with or being affected by HIV. This project, as with HIVideo, was motivated by the fact that the stigma of being HIV positive is often more challenging than the management of living with a chronic illness. I wanted the narrative of the project to be about all that connect us, such as the need for purpose and meaning in our lives and meaningful relationships with others. Living Positive was exhibited in over 50 venues around Manchester (UK) at the same time. It was important that the photographs were situated in everyday settings from café bars, shops, galleries alongside a giant digital screen at Piccadilly train station. I aimed to break down barriers to accessing and viewing the photographic exhibition and allow people to discover it as they went about their everyday life. A common challenge explored within this book is censorship. When you consider that making art is what makes us human and has direct impact on our wellbeing to then have your art censored is clearly a harmful act towards humans. UN//TITLED is not only a collection of beautiful and powerful art but is a celebration and incredible demonstration of Arts and Health, storytelling and breaking down boundaries.

Lottie Barnes Culture, Arts + Health Manager (Guernsey, The Channel Islands )

FOREWORD #2 – Arts Publishing

As a publisher of the monthly contemporary arts magazine Inspirational, I am always aware of the vital role that promotion plays in the health and well-being of the artist. To be seen, to be supported, to be valued goes such a long way in creating a healthy arts community. Through Inspirational, I have been able to help promote artists from across the planet, in a range of disciplines and perspectives. What gives me the most joy as an editor and self-publisher is the fact that I have been able to help promote artists outside of the often-perceived mainstream of contemporary art. Inspirational, at present, is in the midst of a successful campaign to help promote contemporary artists across India to a larger worldwide audience, and will soon be launching another campaign to help promote contemporary artists in Eastern Europe. As an art publisher, I am fully aware of how many artists are not actively and positively promoted within the mainstream contemporary art community, many of whom are censored because of issues regarding gender and sexuality. Since the first few issues, I have made sure that Inspirational has actively promoted a whole range of Queer art and artists, many of whom are Balaclava.Q artists, and are featured in this book.

I was involved in helping to promote and feature Balaclava.Q in its early days, and more recently, with mutual sponsorship and support between Inspirational and Balaclava.Q. As a promoter, I was involved as co-curator of the international HIVideo 2017 event, bringing together Queer artists from across the planet. This was an event that both helped to promote a safe uncensored platform for Queer artists, but also to give support and connection to artists who are often isolated within their own country. And that is where we come to UN//TITLED. Promotion of contemporary art is a laudable enterprise, but the promotion of artists that often have no connection to the mainstream contemporary art world, no connection to its media, purely because of ingrained censorship of Queer art, needs active support and promotion. UN//TITLED is a celebration of contemporary Queer art and artists in all its many manifestations. And that is the key, for me as an art publisher and promoter. Queer art is broad and manifest, an exuberant, expansive collection of artists, full of life and vigour, it deserves no censorship, no corralling, but instead, should be seen as a vital element of contemporary art in this twenty-first century.

John Hopper Inspirational Art Magazine + John Hopper Publishing

FOREWORD #3 – Artist Collectives + Collective Working The book UN//TITLED An Anthology of Queer Contemporary Art (2016-2020) published by Balaclava.Q in the United Kingdom presents the work of over 70 international artists and creatives who have participated with and or been connected to the work of Balaclava.Q over the past four years. As a loosely based global artist collective, (one made possible by the internet and our ability to share both ideas and images instantly across different platforms) Balaclava.Q gathers artists who come together to support its mission and vision by connecting, promoting and creating platforms for Queer artists to share their work with one another and with Queer and non-Queer audiences. These connections (albeit) facilitated by social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr and Pinterest offer opportunities for both individual artists and artists collectives to share their work with others, not without the usual risk of arbitrary censorship, applied oftentimes without rhyme or reason by either imperfect algorithms and or individuals who lack the ability and or the training to distinguish art from pornography, even when the lines dividing both are blurred by artists seeking to bring attention to representations of desire, sexuality, and the celebration of the human body as an object of beauty worthy of representation; a tradition dating back to classical antiquity, and the Renaissance. Artist collectives themselves are of course not new, and they have served to move art and artists in specific ways, challenging past and contemporaneous notions of art, its creation and its function in both society and in the historical moments in which they emerge. Collectives have also traditionally launched manifestos as declarations against previous artistic movements and are credited with pushing art and artists in different and exciting directions. Pussy Riot was a loosely based collective using performance art to challenge Putin’s oppressive regime and the balaclava became an important symbol for granting anonymity in a country where art making can land you in prison. Pussy Riot was following in the steps of the Moscow Conceptualists whose reappropriation of the language and rituals of Russian life in the 70s and 80s subverted notions of socialism, through the use of conceptual art and appropriation. In the United States, the New York based Collective Gran Fury in the early 80s created some of the first artistic representations of the AIDS epidemic influencing the pictorial language through which Queer artists sought to represent themselves and their communities during the early years of the AIDS crisis challenging both governmental and societal silence and indifference. Queer art is by its very nature is inherently political and subversive as it’s created by individuals and groups at the margins of dominant heterosexual and religious systems and institutions. In seeking both representation and access, it invites political, religious and cultural resistance. Balaclava.Q’s UN//TITLED is an unabashed celebration of Queer art and representation during the first decade of the 21st century and shows Queer artists and their production as insightful creators willing to push back against dominant patriarchal, religious, and heterosexist structures to challenge and make space for alternative narratives. In its international scope UN//TITLED shows universal themes of how Queer communities and aesthetics are connected across geographical distances and celebrates the seditious nature of our common Queer gaze.

David Acosta Wicked Gay Ways + Casa De Duende

SPOTLIGHT ARTWORK — Untitled (2019), photograph From the ‘Reflection Not’ series by Xaq Tyler Iria (Australia) Featured as part of Balaclava.Q Tactic 1 project Obscuring the Face (2019)

Notes on Fertile LaToyah Jackson Zine By Vaginal Davis (1982-1991) By Art Historian + Queer Theorist Dr Robert Summers PhD (b. 1972 d. 2018)

Before delving into the queer and feminist world of Vaginal Davis’s “zines,” I will give an overview of who Davis is and what she does. I will then briefly turn to aspects of the eighties queer zine culture. This will lead to an overview of some of Davis’s zines that were instrumental in the “homocore”-cum“queercore” movement; this will show their significant contributions and connections to queer politico-aesthetic history, queer visual and media culture, which will culminate in an examination of her most (in)famous zine: Fertile LaToyah Jackson. Her zines have neither been deeply engaged with academically nor historically. Thus, I hope this marks the end of this elision around the zines of Davis.

I draw from Vaginal Davis and her website and the “anonymous” zine Fish Taco, a so-called “unauthorised biography,” and whose title surfaces this artist’s biracialism: her Latinx and Black heritage, and it also makes a humorous double entendre around her sexed body. Davis, a multi-media artist, was a participant of the “homocore,” more specifically the “queercore,” movement: they differ in that queercore is more in line with what we now call queer theory. Davis's low-budget, punk, and queer aesthetics in art have been a trenchant, though humorous, critique of the fake radicalism of the hegemonic art world. I argue that she deploys queer politico-aesthetics that target the politics of white, straight, male middle-classism. She does this through her shameless spectacles of queerness, femininity, and race.

“Homo-“ and “Queer-core” Zines: A Revolution – If Not a Revolver

Homo and queer zines mix punk sensibilities; they included queer visualities, personal stories, political manifestos, and adverts for homo and queer clubs and bathhouses. As I have argued elsewhere, zines, especially queer ones, open the door to various ways of queer living. In thinking about the history of queer zines, one must recall they were pre-internet; they were vehicles for information; they showed various queer tactics of resisting and refusing hetero- and homo-normativity.

Zines, according to Stephen Duncombe, are material spaces where “everyday oddballs were speaking plainly about themselves and the [North American] society with an honest sincerity, a revealing intimacy, and a healthy ‘fuck you' to sanctioned authority”. Duncombe: these were “a radically new democratic and participatory ideal of what culture and society might be—ought to be”. Here, it should be stated that the eighties saw the rise of something other than LGBT politics and visual culture emerge, given the AIDS epidemic (and the US government ignoring it for the first 7 years), the culture wars, and the Moral Majority, there was the emergence of queer theory. And, it is during this period that the dramatic rise of queer zines, such as Vaginal Davis’s, emerged. This queer zine explosion continued to the mid-nineties. It was a proverbial revolver blowing holes into a state system that would rather see queers disappear and/or die.

Juvenile Delinquents: Queers Strike Back

Canadian artists, filmmakers, and zinsters G.B. Jones and Bruce LaBruce coined the word “homocore” in their zine J.D.s (Juvenile Delinquents), which came out in 1985. The term “homocore,” and later “queercore,” was a neologism for homo-sexual and hard-core and the later queer and hard-core. Its audience was for “social mutants” “who’ve outgrown or never were a part of the ‘socially acceptable’ categories”. In fact, Tom Jennings borrowed the word “homocore” after he and partner Deke Nihilson met Jones and LaBruce at the Anarchist Survival Gathering in Toronto, Canada. Motivated by Jones and LaBruce, Jennings and Nihilson returned to San Francisco and began Homocore in 1988, which ran until 1991. Although their primary audience was the homo/queer underground in San Francisco, it soon became a US site for information and ideas for queers. Chris Wilde:

Homocore rebranded itself as ‘queercore' to be more inclusive but definitely started out with values that embraced all flavours of marginalized queer folks. These weren't token efforts, and they weren't as a result of some attempt to be PC. From dyke punks on motorcycles to African American punk drag queen divas, homocore was blessed with an amazing set of genes that has fuelled it along for a generation and still to this day points the way forward in how to build community and defeat fascism in all forms. Obviously, Davis should not be left out of this history, she is an “African American drag queen”. Undeniably, her queer projects had no specific name at the time of homocore, instead her practices and projects employed various queer tactics in her zines. I argue that the refusal of a “proper,” “stable” name is advantageous in doing queer work, which is to say it functioned in solidarity with queer politico-aesthetics, but it never became a solidity. Much like Davis’s self-performance, it was, and remains, mercurial. But, she eventually aligned her work with the queercore movement. Interestingly, as I argue elsewhere, queer theory emerged after queercore. The practice of queer was taking place in small spaces before it was in universities and academic texts. Thus, J.D.’s, Homocore, and Davis’s zines were crucial to a burgeoning queer culture and, I argue, a precursor to queer theory, though this has not been explored in academia. At the same time as Homocore, Davis was already producing queer zines such as Crude, which was a celebration of all that was rejected by “White, Anglo-Saxon, and Protestant culture”. She also created the short-lived Hey, Miss Davis, which was a mixture of reviews, gossip, and queer politics, and then there was Fertile LaToyah Jackson, which I will delve into below. There was also Shrimp, which explored the sexual fetish of shrimping, which is the practice of sucking on toes. The zine celebrated this sexual act. Davis: “Shrimp is devoted to feet, but not exclusively. If anything in this [zine] offends, be noted that this publication is produced by a young, militant, African American drag queen, who not only welcomes confrontation but encourages it”. Indeed, her zines are a loud “fuck you” to the status quo. Now, I turn to Davis's most (in)famous zine: Fertile LaToyah Jackson.

Queer Bodies, Politics, and Language: Vaginal Davis’s Fertile LaToyah Jackson

One of the most important and influential zines from Davis is her Fertile LaToyah Jackson zine, which, according to Amy Spencer, became “required reading” for queers and misfits. It emerged in the late eighties while Davis worked at Retail Slut on Melrose in Los Angeles, and where she used their photocopier to reproduce the zine; there were only eight issues with two “video zines'' being produced. Given the title, it featured a queer character named Fertile LaToyah, a name that denotes all her births by various men. LaToyah's image was always on the cover, and she made contributions. For example, several issues contained the section “What Fertile Sez, People Copy"— in which LaToyah and Davis (often ventriloquising LaToyah) used verbal puns. According to Michael du Plessis and Kathleen Chapman — whom Davis believes are the first two to understand her “Vaginalese,” or style of creating an alternative language, “one that took Ebonics one step further”— the zinsters/artist wrote in “a dense mixture of Black English, sexual slang, queer gossip, homo-folklore, neologistic wordplay, ribald narrative, and revenge fantasy which recalls the specifically African American traditions of boasting and signifying”. “What Fertile Sez,” contained sayings or “homey-sexual” advice that LaToyah, or Davis as LaToyah, wrote. Another section that was often included was “What Makes Fertile Mad?” — which was often full of sexual and political humour in the form of innuendo, gossip, and camp, or as Davis would say “whimsy”. Furthermore, drawing on Adam Block, Davis's Fertile LaToyah Jackson zine was everything, and it was filled with scandalous gossip — as well as glamour tips and had no small amount of shameless self-promotion by the Afro Sisters (one of Davis’s bands). In almost every issue they rated queer, dyke, homo, and dive bars, and the male strippers and go-go boys — as well as a star-studded line-up of the Hollywood elite that would show up, supposedly. In the world of Davis there is no line between fact and fiction or art and life: for her everything is a fabulous and hyperbolic story. The zines also offered their own "Queen's Glossary" when not offering dirt on movie and porn stars and rockers and the cultural elite. In the words of Block: it was "a veritable John Waters film of a skinny ‘zine’”. This is to say that Fertile LaToyah Jackson was, for the “upstanding” middle-class subject, a veritable “porno-copia” and dissemination of other “filth” that was indecorous to society at large, but this was the intention of this zine. She called for an attack on bourgeois values, white privilege, racism, and homophobia. This may be the reason that Jose Munoz has called her a “terrorist” — in, queerly, a positive sense.

“That Fertile Feeling”—the Fertile LaToyah Jackson Video Zine

Davis’s Fertile LaToyah Jackson zine was also developed in video form, and it helped create a queer and queer feminist underground video scene in Los Angeles. Two video zines were produced: It All Started in Black (1987) and That Fertile Feeling (1988). Given space, I will only focus on one video zine — one that I argue highlights race, sexuality, queer bodies, and class: Fertile LaToyah Jackson: “That Fertile Feeling”. It is important to highlight this video given the culture wars that were beginning to happen, as well as the typical conservative arguments against a welfare state, which only is directed toward “irresponsible” and “lazy” women — and it is an argument that is still going on today.

According to Vaginal Davis, “There is no difference between masculine and feminine: it’s all commercial hype”. She has also argued that we must declare a war against normative gender, sexuality, race, and class. I understand this to mean that masculinity and femininity, as well as male and female, are constructions for conservative and capitalist economic and political aims, and all of this plays out in That Fertile Feeling by disrupting sexuality, gender, and race — as too hyperbolically and paradoxically playing up the fears of the conservative right, which highlights this mentality’s irrational and phobic underpinnings. In a word, she deconstructs the conservative agenda — but in a highly and perversely humorous way. That stated, Davis does by way of video in her style of whimsy and a queer punkness.

Directed by Keith Holland and John O’Shea, the video stars Vaginal Davis and Fertile LaToyah Jackson, who is obviously white, but whom Davis calls “a rich black girl” — “rich” because she owns a VCR. The central theme of the zine video is Fertile’s number of kids, and that she is pregnant again. As they fight over, as well as make fun and hysterically laugh, over the remote control and the porno Davis wants to watch, Fertile’s water breaks and all goes to hell. Fertile can’t find a doctor to help deliver her baby because of insurance, which highlights the horrid health industry for poor, working poor, and even many middle-class people. I argue, by deploying humour and a queer punk sensibility, this video zine undermines conservative arguments by embracing what is deemed as inappropriate and toxic — all the while highlighting the plight of (queers) of colour and the poor.

Conclusion: Queer(core)ing Now?

As I write this historical essay, The United States Supreme Court ruled that shop owners, and this will spill over to doctors and others, have the Constitutional right to refuse service to LGBTQIA people. This is horrible news, and it seems to throw queer and gay and lesbian subjects backwards, but this shows that queer tactics, such as those articulated and argued in zines written over 20 years ago that we must still fight, in queer ways, for our rights and lives. The birth of queer zines came out at a time of great political turmoil by queers and queers of colour, and it seems to me that a resurgence of queer zines, or something similar, is needed again. I’m disappointed to have to end on this note, but it shows that history and politics against minorities are constantly being recycled, and so must queer tactics, politics, and ethics so that we may, one fine day, live on more equitable planet, which is a main ethical ideal in queerness.—(2018)

SPOTLIGHT ARTWORK — Kiss of Equality (2018), pencil and fine liner on paper By Zahra Hoccom (UK) Featured as part of Balaclava.Q Tactic 1 project Obscuring the Face (2018)

HIVideo Film Festival // 2016

Tactic 2 +4

CURATORIAL STATEMENT // While HIV is no longer a death sentence one of the biggest frustrations experienced for those living with the virus is stigma. Born from a toxic mixture of misinformation and homophobia, education is sadly still lacking, which when not tackled, causes unnecessary post-diagnosis aftershocks such as isolation, shame and fear. Balaclava.Q invites LGBTQ+ artists from across the globe to contribute to an ongoing dialogue on HIV through the medium of film. All genres are accepted: for example romance, experimental, digital, documentary, horror, abstract, documented performances and acts, etcetera. Via a local, national and/or global lens, artists are invited to take part in a collective action to try and decentralise some of the commonly held misconceptions about HIV. This collective action in destigmatising HIV is titled HIVideo (pronounced “H.I.Video”). HIVideo is a global screening and film festival which will present moving image artworks about HIV/AIDS to audiences across the world simultaneously on World AIDS Day (1st December). Aligned with the Balaclava.Q core purpose of connecting, promoting and creating platforms for queer artists, HIVideo’s specific project objective will be to:

Increase Awareness + Promote Dialogue = Reduce Stigma.

Film still from SILENCIO (2016) by Emmanuel Barrouyer (France) screened as part of Balaclava.Q Tactic 2 project HIVideo (2016) The 2016 HIVideo film festival included a total of 6 films (including 2 new works and 3 world premieres), screened in 6 cities, across 3 continents. The HIVideo films were also shown to audiences at an exhibition titled A Day With(out) Art: Santa Fe - a curatorial collaboration between curator W. Giovanni Gonzales (USA), and Balaclava.Q, exhibited at Offroad Productions, New Mexico (USA). Also, in partnership with El_Ichu Zine (Puerto Rico/USA), there was a final screening of the HIVideo film programme on March 23rd, 2017, at El Local Santurce, San Juan (Puerto Rico), kindly supported by the Museum of Contemporary Art Puerto Rico and Libros AC, and facilitated by Jose Luis Cortes (Puerto Rico).

FACILITATORS

LOCATIONS

Dylan Thibert Emmanuel Barrouyer John Hopper + Stiofan O’Ceallaigh Jose Luis Cortes Rene Capone W. Giovanni Gonzales Wilhelm Vincent

PARC, Toronto (Canada) Les Mots à la Bouche, Paris (France) LGBT Foundation, Manchester (UK) El Local Santurce, San Juan (Puerto Rico) Capone Fine Art gallery, California (USA) Offroad Productions, New Mexico (USA) Art Karoo gallery, Oudtshoorn (South Africa)

The HIVideo model was initially devised by Stiofan O’Ceallaigh (Balaclava.Q Founder), and Wilhelm Vincent (Balaclava.Q Creative Director for South Africa). Credit is also due to Franco Fontana (France), and Emmanuel Barrouyer (France), for help with translations, and Dr Robert Summers PhD (USA) + John Hopper (UK) for editorial support. HIVideo was curated and programmed by the Balaclava.Q Volunteer Team. Curatorial Statement written by Stiofan O’Ceallaigh.

HIVideo Film Festival Programme // 2016 JUXTAPOSITION - AN ABSTRACTION (2016) by Carter Seagrove (USA) Originally meant as a trailer for the book Juxtaposition by Alp Mortal (on which this piece is based), and written to highlight the alarming upward trend in the number of new HIV+ cases being reported in London, this piece is a safe sex fable, if you will. In making the trailer for the book, the script and the trailer morphed into something that the creators hadn’t planned, they called it Juxtaposition - An Abstraction. This film tells the story of Emile, a young man who gifts his virginity in the pursuit of love, receiving a very different gift in return. In reflecting on these events, Emile reminds us all of the potentially dire consequences of our actions while seeking neither redemption, nor inviting judgement. Words by Alp Mortal. Read by Roy Allen. Videography by Hal Sinden for Eulogy Media Ltd.

LONG TERM SURVIVOR (2016) by Jose Luis Cortes (Puerto Rico) WORLD PREMIERE In Long Term Survivor filmmaker Jose Luis Cortes has imagined a tale of condoms that were never used! It is told by Cortes’s artist persona whom he has called ‘Ivan El Terrible’. Standing naked and fully painted in black and white, while watching his reflection in a broken mirror, Ivan’s tale is in fact his confession of choices made and roads not taken! A confession that unfolds in three parts as he remembers a time in his life before AIDS had a name, to the present time in which he shares the fate of “Patient Zero”. Redemption is not in the cards as Ivan reflects on the price he has paid for love.

BLOED (2016) WORLD PREMIERE by Wilhelm Vincent (South Africa) A triptych of personal accounts on living with HIV/AIDS. With extracts from Eternity by Arthur Rimbaud and music by Charles East.

Official poster for film BLOED (2016) by Wilhelm Vincent (South Africa) Screened as part Balaclava.Q Tactic 4 project HIVideo (2016)

Film still from LONG TERM SURVIVOR (2016) by Jose Luis Cortes (also known as ‘Ivan El Terrible’) (Puerto Rico)

SO… WHEN DID YOU FIGURE OUT YOU HAD AIDS? (2010) by Vincent Chevalier (Canada) This film consists of home video footage recorded when Chevalier was 13. He plays the role of a clown-wig bedecked “man dying from AIDS” on a pretend talk show. He is interviewed by a childhood friend, and makes a series of cringe-worthy admissions that represent simultaneously an identification with, and alienation from, the meta-fictional AIDS victim. This film pre-dates the artist's later HIV diagnosis.

THERE + NOT THERE (NIRTOGEN) (2002) by Stiofan O’Ceallaigh (UK) There + Not There (Nirtogen) is a visual poem that explores HIV as mortality, monuments and the cellular. The soundtrack is taken from Translucence: A Song Cycle (1992) by Derek Jarman + Donna McKevitt. In solidarity with this project and to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS Ms McKevitt and Manners McDade Music have generously supported this film project by providing pro bono copyright.

SILENCIO (2016) WORLD PREMIERE by Emmanuel Barrouyer (France) Barrouyer shamelessly reinvigorates his character ‘SILENCIO’ (created in response to Balaclava.Q). Film concept by Stiofan O’Ceallaigh, words borrowed from, and in homage to: Untitled (One Day This Kid…) (1990) by David Wojnarowicz, with music Ode to Trixie by Matthieu Graufogel.

SPOTLIGHT ARTWORK — Tejido Elemental (2015), recycled wool knitted with crochet sticks By Ingrato (Germany) Featured on Balaclava.Q Tactic 1 project Obscuring the Face (2016)

SPOTLIGHT ARTWORK — Strong Women (2018), ink drawing By Victoria Shone (UK) Featured as part of Balaclava.Q Tactic 3 project Abstract Activism (2018)

HE: Questioning and Queering “Masculinity” // 2016

Tactic 4

Opening Night of exhibition HE: Questioning and Queering “Masculinity” (2017), LAST Projects gallery, Los Angeles (USA) CURATORIAL STATEMENT // HE is an exhibition that explores contemporary trans, gay, and queer artists who, as the curators see their work, question and/or queer “masculinity”— especially as defined, still, by patriarchal EuroAmerican culture(s). In the works presented, the male subject -- understood as doing some form of "masculinity" -- is represented in ways that undermine or ignore the dominant idea(l) and performance(s) of the masculine, male subject, and in this way, “HE” is un-done and made un-becoming. Indeed, this questioning of “masculinity” has been going on for decades — first through feminism, then gay and lesbian studies, and finally to queer theory and queer feminism, which has been called a "crisis of masculinity," or “male trouble,” as Abigail Solomon-Godeau has articulated it, as well as been problematised by Amelia Jones in art history and visual culture — and it has allowed for the emergence of other forms of "masculinity." But, as of late, there has been the reawakening, or resurfacing, of what can be called “toxic masculinities,” which can be seen in the rise of Trumpism, Brexit, and a more global return to so-called “tradition” — which is an ugly return to very limited notions of “masculinity” that is a backlash against feminism, trans, LGBT lives, and queerness. With the inauguration and implementation of the Trump administration artists are looking inwards and at what can be called ancient European idea(l)s such as liberty, equality, and justice. America seems to be no longer the centre in this global era and HE reflects this by showcasing works by international artists. This will feed into how this show is curated and will focus on cultural dialogues and visual discourse on the concept of “HE”. If one question can be asked, one that underlines this exhibition, it is: “How can we accept new modes of (performing) “masculinity” — such as tender masculinities, femme masculinities, and un-becoming masculinities — in a way that the very term “masculinity” may no longer be of any use or meaning?” - Curatorial Statement written by Dr Robert Summers PhD + Stiofan O’Ceallaigh, 2017) Exhibition HE was the result of a two year collaboration between Balaclava.Q and USA based Queer Art Network (supported by Greenleaf Gallery and Gift Shop, USA). The exhibition ran from 31st of March 2017 to the 12th May, 2017, and was then extended due to popular demand until 31st July 2017. HE featured the work of over 50 international LGBTQ+ artists specialising in photography, film and sculpture, and was co-curated by Stiofan O’Ceallaigh (representing Balaclava.Q), and Dr Robert Summers PhD (representing Queer Art Network), both of whom were interviewed by Jake Hall for DAZED digital in the feature and interview: ‘Photos That Explore Alternate Masculinities’ (2017). HE also included: an Opening Night party (including artists stalls selling art books and wearable art), an Artist Talk and Tour by the curatorial team and selected artists, a Facebook LIVE tour of the exhibition, a Video Art Night event which included the world premiere of ‘Symposium: An Athenian Rawmance’ (2017) by Menelas (Greece), and a Closing Party with poetry reading by L.A. based poet Dave Russo (founder of OUT LOUD: A Cultural Revolution queer arts festival).

Images (above and right): Installation shots of exhibition HE (entrance - exit), LAST Projects gallery, Los Angeles (USA)

Image (above): Promotional poster for exhibition HE: Questioning and Queering “Masculinity” (2017), designed by Stiofan O’Ceallaigh (UK)

HE: Video Art Programme // 2017 CURATORIAL STATEMENT // For the purposes of the exhibition HE, the videos chosen were categorised into traditional behaviours of “masculinity” namely: Aggression, Sexual Prowess, Protectiveness and Competitiveness, which will be questioned and queered in the videos by highlighting, and even satirising, dominant “masculinity”. By no means is this a complete “visual manifesto,” if you will. The video art programme complements and extends the hung exhibition, and both the video and visual art provide “snapshots,” or manifestos, that have been curated in such a way that they both challenge and present various cross-cultural, aesthetic, and theoretical dialogues on dominant “masculinity”. In summary, the artists, specifically, the video art(ists), cleverly explore and undo “masculinity” as it is intertwined with sex, emotions and the body politic in works dating from 1999 to 2017.

AGGRESSION; (+ the soldier) -- In almost every society men ostensibly are the ones who overwhelmingly invoke wars, which cause all kinds of micro- and macro-aggressions. Traditionally, men (always conflated with “the masculine”); mobilise themselves into armies, gangs and more. These observations are as old as the world, and thus seem natural, and have allowed us to create a clear distinction between male and female sexes regarding their predisposition to violence. Here, the artists externalise, present and challenge these traditional ideas of aggression. FILMS: Fucked by the System, Drop ++ Censored // {Ray 0f LiGht} (2016), and Each Soul Makes A Particularly Sound (2016), by Leon Headstone (Belgium) // Revolving Door (FT. Gio Balck Peter) (2011), by Bruce Labruce (USA) // Fuck That (2016), by Joshua Spellman-Hall (USA) // Ninja – Independence Day (1999), by Slava Mogutin (USA).

SEXUAL PROWESS; (+ various acts) -- “Masculine” sexuality covers not only sexual activities - and the partner or partners of one’s choice for those activities - it also includes one’s sexual identity, sexual health, sexual expression and, finally, individual choices. In these works the artists reflect personal and private desires and explore how said desires manifest themselves in “various acts”. FILMS: Butt Muscle (FT. Christeene) (2017), by Matt Lambert (USA) // Communion (Part One) (2013), by Gio Black Peter (USA) // Dance Piss (FT. Gio Black Peter) (2009), by Slava Mogutin // Cheeto Heaven (2017) by Ethan Shoshan (USA).

PROTECTIVENESS; (+ the patriarch) -- Society’s notion of what constitutes a “real man” has been moulded and shaped by their individual histories, environments, and dominant religious beliefs, but ultimately informed by the “father figure” or patriarch. This form of learning and teaching is encased as protective behaviour and the genealogy of moral or ethical codes and practices. FILMS: Daddy Issues or Study For an infinite Masturbation (2017), WORLD PREMIERE by Carlos Vergara (Austria) // Long Term Survivor (2016), by Jose Luis Cortes (Puerto Rico) // Moon River (FT. Bruce Labruce) (2015), by Slava Mogutin // Deepthroat (2016) by Stiofan O’Ceallaigh (UK).

COMPETITIVENESS; (+ the durational) -- “Competitiveness” refers to the theory that all “real men” (again, conflated with “masculinity”), adhere to an alpha-male complex. These works also challenge competitive and durational forms of “masculine” and competition as strength, which shows dominance and control. FILMS: Flip Flopping (2015), by Matt Lambert + Gio Black Peter // Slap Peace (FT. Gio Black Peter) (2010), by Slava Mogutin // The Butterfly Project (2017), by Luca Hunter (Italy) // Workout (2013), by Jonathan David Smyth (USA).

THE PHENOMENOLOGICAL BODY; (+ form versus roles) -- The “phenomenological” refers to structures of consciousness as experienced from an embodied view of the world and others. In these video works the artists explore how this relates to actual form. As we progress and develop as a society we are learning to not adhere to form as presented as natural and dualistic, but rather as performative and in flux. FILMS: I Will Jump First (2012), by AMAE Collective (New Zealand) // Man, and Me (2016), by Marval A Rex (USA) // Queer Propaganda (FT. HEXAGONAL) (2017), WORLD PREMIERE by Pony Bronn (Italy) // Sweat (2016), by Matt Lambert.

The HE video art programme also included the WORLD PREMIERE of Symposium: An Athenian Rawmance (2017), by Menelas (Greece).— Written by Stiofan O’Ceallaigh + Dr Robert Summers PhD (2017).

SPOTLIGHT ARTWORK — Carlos (2017), photograph From the ‘Dirty Boys’ series by Emmanuel Barrouyer (France) Featured as part of Balaclava.Q Tactic 1 project Obscuring the Face (2017)

HIVideo Film Festival // 2017

Tactic 2 + 4

CURATORIAL STATEMENT // After the success of the 2016 HIVideo film festival it was agreed that 2017 would have to be bigger and better than the previous year. In 2016 Balaclava.Q facilitated the screening of 6 films to audiences, in 6 cities simultaneously on World AIDS Day (1st December), as part of an ongoing visual dialogue about HIV/AIDS. By using art to promote discourse and increase understanding about the virus Balaclava.Q invite artists to again reflect upon this particular theme. As part of the 2017 festival we invite artists to also consider and promote the recent medical breakthrough of PrEP: a new pill with a 92% efficacy rate, when taken once a day reduces the risk of getting HIV. Film styles can be in any genre, including, but not limited to: romance, documentary, experimental, collage, oral histories, documented performance, etcetera. The 2017 HIVideo film festival programme will be bookended by two pieces of HIV-focussed activism. The film programme will be opened by the Gay Men’s Health Project (GMFA), London (UK) and their film ‘The Undetectables’ which seeks to highlight the ‘U=U’ (“Undetectable = Untransmittable”), campaign, and to promote the use PrEP. To close the film programme will be screening documentary titled ‘Impunity Uganda’ produced by Isaac Matovu and Ismile Matovu (Uganda), to highlight daily struggles while seeking access to HIV medication and prevention. This film has been officially banned by the Ugandan government for promoting “unnatural lifestyles”.— Curatorial Statement written by Stiofan O’Ceallaigh (2017).

The 2017 film festival included: 15 films (including 8 new works) screened to audiences in 12 cities across 3 continents. We screened PrEP campaign film The Undetectables by GMFA (UK), to raise awareness about the ’Undetectable=Untransmittable’ campaign, better known as ‘U=U’. There were 2 collaborations which resulted in the production of films Cold Rain 1989 by Emmanuel Barrouyer (France), and Dave Russo (USA), and film U created by Menelas (Greece), and George Kanis (Greece). And finally we also screened the film Impunity Uganda, a film that documents the struggle, hardship and intolerance experienced by LGBTQ+ people daily and their struggle in trying to access healthcare. The film goes as far as to share deeply poignant and harrowing experiences of torture and rape experienced by LGBTQ+ Ugandans. The Ugandan government has banned the film in an attempt try to silence LGBTQ+ voices.

Also, each of the local facilitators devised and produced a complimentary programme of events which included: Rapid HIV tests and sexual health screenings. Also a guided walk provided by The Rainbow Project (Northern Ireland), to the Derry Peace Bridge where a vigil was held to those lost to HIV/AIDS. There were several post-screening ‘Question + Answer’ sessions with panel members who included sexual health experts, gallerists, educators, and the HIVideo artists. A red ribbon and condom art trail was installed at the entrance to the Performing Arts Centre of the Free State (South Africa) to entice the audience into the screening, and where possible voluntary donations were collected for local HIV and LGBTQ+ charities.

FACILITATORS

LOCATIONS

Dave Russo, Marc Bellenger + Dr Gregory Mattson PhD Emmanuel Barrouyer Jose Luis Cortes, Royal Torres + Jorge Pratts Luciano Parisi Menelas Norwich University Students Union Stiofan O’Ceallaigh + Johann D’Nale The LGBT Society Penthouse NQ (Rosanne Robertson + SHARP The Artist) The Rainbow Project Wilhelm Vincent + Marcela Filomena Otero

Tom of Finland Foundation, Los Angeles (USA) La Mutinerie, Paris (France) Puerto Rico Museum of Contemporary Art (USA) Spallanzani Hospital, Rome (Italy) Alexander Sauna, Athens (Greece) Norwich University of the Arts (UK) Aire Place Studios, Leeds (UK) Falmouth University (UK) Paradise Works, Manchester (UK) Foyle Arts Centre, Derry (UK) The PACOFS (South Africa)

Credit is also due to John Hopper for editorial support and to the Balaclava.Q Volunteer Team for help with translations. Also credit is due to Rueben Esparza (USA), the Penthouse NQ (UK), Johann D’Nale and the Balaclava.Q Volunteers for help in securing venues. HIVideo was co-curated by Stiofan O’Ceallaigh + John Hopper. - Curatorial Statement written by Stiofan O’Ceallaigh (2017).

Image (above): Official poster for film Prename: Breed Me (2017), designed by Royal Torres (USA) + Jose Luis Cortes (Puerto Rico) Screened as part of Balaclava.Q Tactic 4 project HIVideo (2017)

HIVideo Film Festival Programme // 2017

Film still from ROCCO (2017) by Castro (Greece) screened as part of Balaclava.Q Tactic 2 project HIVideo (2017)

U (2017) by Menelas + George Kanis (Greece) WORLD PREMIERE Drag queen and HIV activist Zackie Oh, stars in this short about the impact of negative behaviour towards HIV+ people. As we navigate through the daily activities of a HIV+ person we hope to break down some of the walls between the HIV+ and HIV-. SCREEN TEST (2016) by Mateo Sierra (Colombia) “Based on a Felix-Gonzales-Torres interview about routine, I started to perform three actions of my own routine that happened in different moments and are shown on three square screens while a music playlist is playing. The synchronisation of all of the above is what I decided to call ‘SCREEN TEST’.” VIDEO 3 - L’INFORMAZIONE PREVENZIONE (2016) by Luciano Parisi (Italy) An abstract video-collage which seeks to promote new dialogues about the importance of prevention. The title translates to English as “Prevention Information”. ROCCO (2017) by Castro (Greece) WORLD PREMIERE Rocco details the experiences of an ended relationship, retold by the protagonist as he retraces his emotional past before falling asleep. It is a delicate time that his subconscious merges softly with his reality, unravelling a self-analytical portrait of his feelings. One question arises: Did he ever love him? THE UNDETECTABLES (2017) by the Gay Men’s Health and Sexual Health Project (GMFA) (UK) “2017 has been the year that many organisations across the world finally started to confirm that U=U (Undetectable equals Untransmittable),” says GMFA’s CEO Ian Howley. “We’ve seen major campaigns talking about how people living with HIV and on effective treatment cannot pass on the virus. And this has been wonderful. But many gay and bisexual men are not hearing this message, and if they are, it’s not sticking. We are also seeing many gay and bisexual men who still don’t quite believe the science behind U=U. And this for us is an issue.” A TRACE OF SOMETHING (2017) by SHARP The Artist (UK) WORLD PREMIERE A trace of something, I place my hands on your body, leaving no mark, no trace of my presence. With-in lays the traces of touch and memories. INFINITE SURFACE (2016) by Jonathan Armour (UK) + Dr Richard Sawdon Smith PhD (UK) Infinite Surface focuses on the subject matter of Richard’s (auto)biography, in particular his tattooed HIV+ body. Diagnosed in 1994, Richard has visually documented repetitive trips to the clinic for blood tests to screen for levels of ill health. The tattoos, a process of using needles to puncture the skin like blood tests, of the circulatory system reveal the medical procedures of illness, referencing not only the pain, and the rupturing of the body’s surface but the repetition and banalities of life under the clinical gaze. The film allows the audience to travel through the inverted and undetectable body of Richard in an attempt to reduce stigma around people living with HIV.

CABARET: JOSE + TROY (2017) by Santiago Echeverry (USA) Bear soup: hot bears in a Jacuzzi. This is your chance to see bears in their natural habitat, playing, frolicking, and having fun with each other. Jose and Troy have a really good time in the hot tub, allowing us to explore their beautiful bodies and their passionate intimacy. In the era of PReP and Undetectability, men are rediscovering a sexuality that was repressed for way too many years. KIEM (2017) by Wilhelm Vincent (South Africa) WORLD PREMIERE KIEM, in it’s quintessence is a continuation of Vincent’s 2016 HIVideo film titled BLOED. The film digs its sales firmly into a crucial visual narrative around understanding retroviral medication’s impact on the body. Told through the eyes of a long haul survivor, and a medical practitioner that compiled a paper on the condition in the 1980s when HIV was known as “GRID”. COLD RAIN 1989 (2017) by Dave Russo (USA) + Emmanuel Barrouyer (France) WORLD PREMIERE This video-poem explores the changes in the gay community before and after the ravages of the AIDS epidemic. BE ENRAGED, BECOME EXPLOSIVE (2017) by Rosanne Robertson (UK) WORLD PREMIERE This film is an audio-visual work inspired by the direct action and the agitation by Queer women who resisted, fought back and Act(ed) Up during the AIDS epidemic of New York in the 80s and 90s. This video focuses on said acts by women and how this is perceived, with many being more comfortable in remembering a woman as the nurse rather than the radical. The title is borrowed from Fierce Pussy’s To Do List (1994), printed poster. PRENAME: BREED ME (2017) by Jorge Pratts (starring Jose Luis Cortes ) (Puerto Rico) WORLD PREMIERE An Uber driver in Puerto Rico, a controversial profession in the year 2017, when this story takes place. He picks up a strange customer. The client, a man the same age as the driver, confesses to a discovery he has made about human nature. During a ride along hurricane-torn streets covered in debris first-response units arrive while this calmly, stoic, yet very guilty man tells us about his latest con. DIPTYCH: CUMSLUT/DEEPTHROAT (2016) by Stiofan O’Ceallaigh (UK) Abstract images of men engaged in sex are overlaid with -- and anchored by -- the love ballad soundtrack. A meditative celebration of sex without guilt or shame. WISH YOU WERE HERE (2017) by Chris Northey (UK) WORLD PREMIERE Wish You Were Here is a kinetic postcard from this serene and pastoral country. With its rich cultural and artistic heritage, it is sad to see how close-minded and conservative the populace remain. These voices speak of their experiences from the land they call home. Experiences, which I suspect, are not confined to this small rural idyll. IMPUNITY UGANDA (2016) by Isaac Matovu + Ismile Matovu (Uganda) - BANNED IN UGANDA After the scrapped infamous anti-gay bill commonly known as the “Kill The Gays Bill” by court ruling. It gave news of relief to the advocates and the LGBTQ+ community while reigniting public wrath. This documentary depicts the government’s endeavours to disenfranchise the LGBTQ+ community with laws while the masses decide to take the law into their own hands with impunity.

SPOTLIGHT ARTWORK — Show Me The Dead Stars (2019), photograph By GOD Photography (UK) Exhibited as part of Balaclava.Q Tactic 4 project BORDERS - What’s Up With That? (2020) Part of Civil Disobedience exhibition ‘Residente O Visitante’ at Romantso Gallery, Athens (Greece)

BORDERS - What’s Up With That? // 2020

Tactic 4

Image (above): BORDERS - What’s Up With That? promotional banner (2020) designed by Stiofan O’Ceallaigh (UK)

CURATORIAL STATEMENT // The first division on earth happened 175 million years ago with Pangea slowly breaking up into the continents we know today. When the humanoids appeared about 1 to 2 million years ago in Africa they started to migrate and populate the world. Migration was often in search of space, better living conditions and often had a warlike conquering character. For example, Homo Sapiens in the last hundred thousand years was free to roam, settle in Europe and make the Homo- Neanderthalensis extinct. Notable migrations in western history are associated with the Agricultural Revolution, the Indo-European expansion, the Gothic migration, the Turkic migration, Colonialism and the Slave Trade. From the beginning of civilization people have been relatively free to migrate where they wanted, with the possible exception of cities where populations had a higher degree of control. Areas of land were under the dominion of Generals, Kings or Emperors with a level of fluidity due to war and royal marriages. The modern idea of nation-states started in the 17th century but solidified in the 19th century with the romantic movement and its nationalism component. But it wasn’t until WW1 that border control became what it is today and passports became essential for travel.

We invite artists to explore issues of: nationality, citizenship, racism, ethnocentricity, patriotism, nation-states, empires, migration, refugees, colonialism, slave trade, home and country, tourism, passports, visas and Eurocentricity (which we are guilty of). Queer and feminist perspectives are encouraged and preferred. With the impending advent of Brexit, the global immigration crisis and the rise of the far-right and Trumpism the title and theme of this year’s Civil Disobedience festival seeks to highlight and explore these issues in the exhibition ‘Residente O Visitante’ (translated to English as “Resident or Visitor'). - Curatorial Statement written by Menelas (2019).

In 2019 Balaclava.Q partnered with Greece based queer arts festival Civil Disobedience to devise a call out to LGBTQ+ and feminist artists to submit artworks that explore the theme of “Borders”. The BORDERS concept was devised by Menelas (representing Civil Disobedience), and curated by Stiofan O’Ceallaigh (representing Balaclava.Q). The overall concept was to have an exhibition within an exhibition. In January 2020 the BORDERS project was screened as a slideshow at the Civil Disobedience exhibition titled Residente O Visitante (2020), held at Romantso gallery Athens (Greece). The BORDERS What’s Up With That? project included: the creation of a selection panel made up of Menelas (Curator for Civil Disobedience), Bari Goddard (GOD Photography, UK), who kindly represented Balaclava.Q at the exhibition, and Stiofan O’Ceallaigh (representing Balaclava.Q). 42 artists from 19 countries then had the opportunity to exhibit their work, and on the day of the exhibition opening the BORDERS artists were tasked with a flash-mob and social media takeover to promote the exhibition using hashtags #queerborders #balaclavadotq and #civildisobedience. The BORDERS project was curated by Stiofan O’Ceallaigh (UK) and concept devised by Menelas (Greece). Credit is also due to Emmanuel Barrouyer for the BORDERS installation photographs.

Image (above): BORDERS - What’s Up With That? promotional e-flyer (2020), designed by Stiofan O’Ceallaigh (UK) Images (next page, page 44): Opening night of exhibition ‘Residente O Visitante’ including the screening of BORDERS—What’s Up With That? at Romantso Gallery, Athens (Greece, 2020)

SPOTLIGHT ARTWORK — Please Tell Me I Am One! (2017), fabric By Serpil Yildiz (Turkey) Featured as part of Balaclava.Q Tactic 3 project Abstract Activism (2018)

SPOTLIGHT ARTWORK — Giris (2019), photograph From the ‘Heaven Can Wait’ series by Igor Zeiger (Israel) Featured as part of Balaclava.Q Tactic 4 project BORDERS What’s Up With That? (2020) Part of Civil Disobedience exhibition ‘Residente O Visitante’ at Romantso Gallery, Athens (Greece)

Jonathan David Smyth // USA Tactic 2 + 4

Untitled (2019) from the BETWEEN YOU AND ME series, photograph

Jonathan David Smyth (b. Belfast, Northern Ireland, 1987), is an artist working with photography, video, performance, and incorporated text. His work has been exhibited at various galleries and venues in the United States and abroad, including Free Range (London, U.K.), PH21 Gallery (Budapest, Hungary), Auckland Festival of Photography (New Zealand), Jimei x Arles International Photo Festival (Xiamen, China), and LAST Projects (Los Angeles, CA). Smyth’s work is held in private and public collections, and has been featured in numerous publications including, Aint-Bad Magazine, Flat Magazine, and Musée Magazine. Smyth received a BA with Honours in Photography and Film at Edinburgh Napier University in 2010, and an MFA in Photography from Parsons School of Design in 2014. His first monograph titled JUST ONE MORE was published by bd-studios.com (New York City) in October 2017. ‘BETWEEN YOU AND ME’ (2019) is a series of self-portraits inspired by finding and reconnecting with my birth mother. I am presenting my body as an expression of myself, and of various people in my life. This work considers abandonment, domestic abuse, reconnection and identity. Art is supposed to be objective, yet I feel I am constantly fighting against rules and regulations about what we (as artists) can and cannot do or say. I find this is especially prevalent nowadays on the internet and on social media, where so many artists share their work. Balaclava.Q is a safe place where I am made to feel welcome, appreciated, and encouraged. This is why I will always be grateful for their support, and why I will always support them.

Gregory Farrar Scott // USA Tactic 1 + 4

Urban Mask #98 (Ghost Series) “AIDS Is Not Over” (2018), mixed media

After 20 years as an illustrator and graphic designer, and having created a boatload of t-shirt images in a range of styles and techniques, I stopped doing client-oriented art to focus on my personal work. At first I made a lot of graphite and coloured pencil pieces, and eventually got into sculpture, printmaking, and experimental video. Going back to school and earning an MFA was definitely meaningful. As is having my art in a couple of permanent collections, including the sex-positive Kinsey Institute. The 'Urban Mask' series began during my first semester at PAFA. I’d purchased a couple of used bike helmets at a thrift store, thinking they could be turned into something else… back in my studio I hung the helmets on the wall to get them out of the way… the next day I realized they were shaped like heads, so I began adding items from my studio to give each helmet ridiculous facial features… a year later there were 32 masks on my wall -- A mask can be anything and anything can be a mask. On Balaclava.Q there are queer artists making work that I can relate to. And there’s no censorship.

Dorian Katz // USA Tactic 1 + 4

Untitled (2017), marker, pencil and ink on paper

Dorian Katz is an artist, zinester and curator living in California. She has made art as ‘Poppers the Pony’ for 14 years. Katz received an MFA in Art Practice at Stanford University (2011). Katz self-published over 20 zines. Her drawings are included in diverse titles like Morbid Curiosity (vol 1-10), The Butch Colouring Books, LGBTQ Resistance Fighters, Salome’s Modernity and Hyena. Katz’ art has been exhibited in galleries, museums, community centres and kinky dungeons including UC Berkeley, Paris Ass Book Fair, Leslie Lohman Museum and Sanctuary LAX. As Centre for Sex + Culture’s Gallery Director (2011-19), a community centre in San Francisco, Katz featured art that transgressively addressed sexuality and gender by hundreds of artists. She has received grants from Endeavor Foundation for the Arts, San Francisco Art Foundation, WorkMORE and Suzanne Barach Lewis. For her community work, she is San Francisco Bay Area Leather Alliance Woman of the Year (2018). Through portraiture I cast myself as subject in narratives that include fantastical animals and chimeras. Using marker, pencil and ink, I illustrate a sex utopia full of adventurous, queer creatures from the perspective of my alter ego, Poppers the Pony. Poppers’ stories are inspired by scientific data on animals, queer history and lives I see friends leading or aspiring to lead. The mask I wear to make my art and exist on paper is Balaclava.Q. For to play, to survive, to riot and to bewitch is Balaclava.Q.

Fernando Carpaneda // Brazil Tactic 1, 3 + 4

PRIDE (2018), acrylic on canvas

Fernando Carpaneda was one of the first Brazilian artists to exhibit homoerotic works in Brazil, in the 1980s. Beggars, pop stars, sex workers, punks and outcasts of all kinds are the objects of his attention. He portrays his subjects in clay sculptures and acrylic paintings. Using DNA as artistic material - be it his own hair or that of his models - he blends it with wood, fabric, cement, stencil and canvases while preparing his sculptures and paintings. I hope that my work can reach audiences that appreciate art - regardless of being gay or straight. I like to make work that does not fit into the realms of the contemporary art circuit. I like to go against standards imposed by art institutions. My goal with my art is to show other sides within the LGBTQ+ culture and society in general. By that I mean, to open the minds of the audience to other possibilities within gay and punk art. My works speak of freedom. I think it's very important to have a queer project like Balaclava.Q, at a time when prejudice against the LGBTQ+ community is growing everyday. I think it is important that new artists have a platform to show their ideas and their creations, without fear of being censored.

Marc Kiska // Norway Tactic 1 + 4

D-Programmed (2017), photograph

Born in France in 1983 Marc Kiska discovered photography at the age of 20. Describing photography as “a whole new dimension in which I could express myself”. Kiska’s early photographic series were produced to illustrate his short stories. One of his first shoots in 2004 was shot in location inside the walls of the City Hall of Oslo. Kiska says “here I discovered small, secret passages inside some of the walls. This encounter informed my artistic identity, revealing itself in that space, mysterious, hidden, in between parentheses and brackets, barely sheltered from the numb and rigid, institutional charade playing out on the other side of those duplexed walls.” After 10 years of making art photography Kiska published Outlandish /Room/ (2014) which got great attention in several countries and Les vestiges d’Alice (edition TABOU, 2017), Kiska’s debut novel won the Jury's Special Mention at the French Gay Novel Prize (2017). Balaclava.Q is an alternative space for queer artists outside the conventional, commercial and academic frame. A lot of great art + people!

Chris Von Steiner // Belgium Tactic 3 + 4

Johnny Wants to be Alone (2017), mixed media

Chris von Steiner (aka Christophe Austruy), currently lives in Brussels. After several years of working in advertising in Paris (France), he published two novels and his work has been featured internationally in various publications, including Toh! (Italy), Kee Magazine (Hong Kong), Du+lch (Germany), Attitude (UK) and Last Gasp Publishing (USA). My work has always revolved around fantasized exchanges between the adult I am today, and the child I once was. When the adult rediscovers his childhood with tenderness, one invariably takes a playful look at the world around them. If one could qualify my works as autobiographical, it is only in the sense that each of them represents a snapshot of said dialogue between child and adult. There is no nostalgia here, just a clash of past and present that creates (im)possible futures. I am passionate about experimenting with random processes; primarily formalizing accidents and coincidences. This way of working, in its reference to the world of dreams and the unconscious, leads me to create assemblages that escape any pre-established rules. Balaclava.Q is an amazing, unique platform for queer artists from all over the world, one of the most diverse and exhaustive of its kind.

George Kanis // Greece Tactic 1, 2 + 4

Untitled (2019), photograph

George Kanis is a Greek visual artist, based in Athens (Greece). Kanis is best known for his photographic work: experimental and abstract photography, although he also practices painting and makes video art installations. He is known for his nude portraits of the people of the subculture scene of Athens, and he employs a raw, brutal art style in order to emphasise primal feelings and urges evoked during the photo shoots. Kanis proudly explores questions of gender, class, symbols and sometimes race, mostly in Greek society. Balaclava.Q is a space where you freely express yourself, explore questions about yourself and society.

Connor Shields // England Tactic 3 + 4

Built Like A Brick Shithouse (2018), mixed media

Connor Shields is an artist practicing in Yorkshire, England. Since graduating from Leeds Arts University in 2018 with a BA in Fine Art, he has exhibited across the UK, predominantly in the North of England and London. Shortly after graduating, Shields was the first Yorkshire recipient of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park Graduate Award, resulting in two residencies and his first solo show taking place at the park in 2019. Craft processes are an integral part of his practice, and this is why he chooses to base his practice in Yorkshire, an area with a rich textiles history. Connor Shields’ practice is an inquiry into the nature of ‘maleness’ through the use of dichotomous materials such as steel, knitted wool and fabrics. An investigation of these industrial materials and craft techniques realises a visually powerful dynamic in which ideas of working-class masculinity are explored. Originating from Middlesbrough, Shields’ work develops as a response to experiences of post-industrial upbringing. The process of making is explorative, combining contrasting objects which create a sense of tension within the work. With subtlety, the work takes issue with the adopted roles that we easily accept and assume, allowing the viewer to unpick these perceptions. Balaclava.Q was my introduction into the art world. They were the first platform to share and promote my work after graduating.

Justin Corriveau // USA Tactic 1 + 4

Untitled (2020), photograph

Corriveau’s works in photography, digital collage and zine-making. They use dark humour to deal with themes of fear, anxiety, depression, insecurity, body image and low self-worth stemming largely from growing up in a homophobic society. Balaclava.Q is a global community of queer artists with a shared visual language. Despite our different locations and circumstances, we are all intimately, meaningfully connected.

George Lee // England Tactic 3 + 4

Untitled (2019) , digital image

George Lee trained as a graphic designer at Falmouth University (UK), and in Germany at the Höchschule Augsburg, and is currently working as a Designer and Illustrator in London. Lee’s work has a fresh, youthful vision – where street fashion meets pop art in images featuring bold outlines and funky fluoro-colours. Surreal touches and quirky details add touches of humour as well as positive messages which acknowledge the spectrum of queer identities, the march for equality and the right to love. Balaclava.Q is an authentic and passionate representation of LGBTQ+ artists whilst sharing progressive ideas on how to facilitate queer activism effectively.

Henrique X // Brazil Tactic 1 + 4

Untitled (2016), digitally manipulated photograph

Henrique X (formerly known as ‘Ique in Vogue’) is a Brazilian artist and performer who works with time, memory, and solitude in relation to the nude, male body. He also tackles themes around said male body and employs performance as a way to explore masculinity and sex as performative acts in their own right. With the nude male comes the spectre of homoerotism. While I strive to create space in the art world which accepts and celebrates the male nude I realise this may challenge some viewers of my work. Balaclava.Q is an important initiative which provides LGBTQ+ artists with similar interests a space and place to speak from, and share what is very often erased from public view.

Shan Leigh Pomeroy // Canada Tactic 3 + 4

Nude Minotaur With Anaximander’s Conception Of The Universe (2014), mixed media on wood

Shan Leigh Pomeroy is a multidisciplinary visual artist with a specialisation in painting and drawing. She graduated from Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec with a BFA in Studio Art and Art History. Her creative interests include archival imagery and documentation, gender, anatomy, geography, and contemporary youth culture. She has won awards and contributed written and visual projects for several art exhibitions, markets and journals in Newfoundland, Hong Kong and Quebec since 2003 under the profile name ‘The W(h)ine Region’. Shan has recently illustrated a Newfoundland-based children’s book by Karen Silver titled Come on We Goes: The Great Foggy Day, and continues to actively participate in the Newfoundland creative arts milieu. In spring 2019, Shan won her first project grant from the City of St. John’s Grants to Artists and Organizations program. Much of my work deals with gender and anatomical ambiguities, or interruptions of media and style to express discontinuities in social norms and binaries. I often use the juxtaposition of hard and soft, crassness and playfulness, or realism and abstraction, to address reproductive issues, sexual conventions, or general ways in which we've been conditioned to see the world. Balaclava.Q is an inclusive collective that harnesses digital platforms to highlight a variety of queer contemporary artists from across the world. By reaching out online, they have aided in exposing an exceptionally wide variety of creators to one another trans-nationally, transcending geography and affording an opportunity to artists who may not have the mobility to exhibit their work abroad, nor money to produce adequate self-promotion.

Johann D’Nale // England Tactic 1 + 4

Official Promo Poster for #FUCKHATE Magazine (2016), altered photograph

‘Johann Creates’ is the latest incarnation of this artist’s ongoing evolution: emerging from But I Like It photography. Johann originated in photo-portraiture, a practice in which he captures male beauty in flattering and suggestive contexts to reveal sexuality and sexiness. Other works explore new narratives in the form of fantasy fable-telling, often using animal features on the human models. From the models he works with to those who interact with his work, Johann considers his art making process as: “focussed on collaboration”. His most recent work investigates the complexity of labels in contemporary life, addressing issues of a society obsessed with the fake concept of achieving individualism through belonging—and the problems this presents. Recently with project titled ‘(we are) Obscured’ - which provides a safe space for gay and queer male artists to come together - I produced the highly successful zine titled ‘#FUCKHATE’ - a collection of written and visual artworks by 50 international artists. And in 2019 I exhibited at Homosurrelism (Paris). Balaclava.Q is a safe haven to enjoy and immerse oneself in, while admiring and contemplating what it is to be queer and creative.

Tristan Marie Biallas // Germany Tactic 3 + 4

Film still from WTFX.demotivationalien* (2019), performance/video piece

Tristan Marie Biallas was born 1988 in Parchim, Germany. After quitting school ne first trained as a Tailor before eventually attending the Kassel art school in 2017. There ne focussed on installation, performance and new media. Tristan Marie has since exhibited across the country. Biallas centres nis work on emancipatory strategies, covering the personal, the political, the present and the past. Ne transforms found objects into narrators of histories and works with text and textile practices. Ne aims to entice the viewer and draw them in. Inviting them to interact with and experience the work. ‘The WTFX.Series’ consists of interactive objects and performative acts. It is developed from a series of selfies that have gone through fragmentation, doublication and mirroring. That process reflects on the way I experience myself: A mere fragment of myself might become so overwhelming, that I forget about my wholeness. This piece of me turns into all of me. In continued repetition a fragment becomes a pattern, replicating itself endlessly. I transform these structures from within into interactive objects. Balaclava.Q is a place to go and feel seen, represented and inspired.

*Translation for ‘WTFX.demotivationalien’ (pictured above) - “I am doing it all wrong - I am too weak - I can not do this - It is all my fault - I am worthless - I should not even be here - I will fail - This always happens to me - I am never good enough”.

Jay Rechsteiner // England Tactic 3 + 4

Bad Painting 40 (2020) from the BAD PAINTING series, acrylic on canvas

The ‘BAD PAINTING’ series is a group of paintings that I categorise as “Bad Realism” which is work that is not only bad in terms of style and craftsmanship but most importantly in terms of content. The badly executed paintings represent the underlying bad reality of the actions depicted, i.e. the paintings are as bad as the world they depict. The paintings are based on true events and seek to challenge the Western sense of beauty, perfectionism and fear of failure. ‘Then is Now Bad Paintings…’ are based on true events and past atrocities which were accepted realities and are in contemporary Western society unthinkable. There is an obvious correlation between these acts and a political development of the time we are living in. Balaclava.Q is active in the fight for equality, not pretentious but straight-forward and to the point. It also has a good ethos in terms of community engagement.

Santiago Estellano // Argentina Tactic 3 + 4

Exit (2020), digital collage

Santiago Estellano was born in Montevideo, Uruguay. He studied digital art in the US in 1999 and graduated as a graphic designer in 2001. Since 2008, Santiago has been living in Buenos Aires and in 2011 he finished 4 years painting studies at the Roux Foundation. He has exhibited at Pinta Miami Art Fair in 2014 and 2015, and during 2015 and 2016 he took art analysis and clinic classes with Alejandra Roux and Sergio Bazan. I was born in 1977 to a conservative three-generation marines family in Montevideo, a conservative city. Which I guess makes me the pink sheep of the family? Today I live across the River Plate in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I work with collage as an act of deconstruction and construction, transforming frustration into acceptance. It is necessary to be proud of our identity and everyone’s sexual choice. Balaclava.Q means freedom of speech! I felt welcomed from the beginning. Balaclava.Q understands our art and why we do what we do. No questions asked!

Andrew McPhail // Canada Tactic 1 + 4

Documented performance and installation for All My Little Failures (2010), mixed media

Born in Calgary, Alberta in 1961. Andrew McPhail studied at York University where he received his MFA in 1987. Living in Toronto in the 1980’s and 90’s his work focused primarily on drawing, often with pencil crayon on a polyester film called ‘mylar’. After moving to Hamilton in 2005, his interest shifted towards three dimensional work and performance. In his accumulative, craft-oriented practice he uses ephemeral disposable materials such as band aids, Kleenex and post-its to create epic, monumental sculptures and installations and performances. He has exhibited nationally and internationally and in 2013 was the recipient of the Canada Council International Studio (Paris). He is also co-founder, with Stephen Altena, of the Hundred Dollar Gallery and a founding member of The Assembly in Hamilton, Ontario (Canada). My recent three dimensional work began about ten years ago when I started making band aid covered objects. Before that I had worked primarily with drawing. At first I was just wrapping objects in band aids, a tedious and compulsive task. Then I began making shapes with the band aids that were more organic and less identifiable and installing them in mounds and piles. This work has culminated in a lace-like veil, large enough to cover me completely as a burka or shroud. It acts as a second skin, an artificial barrier that both conceals and reveals. Balaclava.Q is a community. Balaclava.Q is identity.

Daniel Nassoy // France Tactic 1 + 4

Untitled (2016), photograph

Born in 1958 in Metz, Daniel Nassoy, a computer scientist by training, one day “opens his eyes” thanks to photography. Nassoy’s photographic journey began with very simple means – a few lights, a black curtain and male naked bodies. My work tries to fight against prejudges around gay nude art. I use male bodies to present different LGBTQ+ themes, and I participated in Balaclava.Q ’s project ‘Tactic 1 – Obscuring the Face’. This way of working - with obscured faces on male figures is important as some artists are regularly rejected and deleted on social media simply because we (like all great artists - for example the Renaissance period), show the naked form. I photograph nude men because it’s natural and beautiful! Balaclava.Q is a group of different LGBTQ+ artists, free to create and show what they want to show without being rejected and punished as we are on such platforms such as Instagram, YouTube or Facebook!

Randomagus // Spain Tactic 1 + 4

Think Boy Think (2016), collage

Since I was a child, paper and scissors have always been in my hand, like an omen of how things would be in the future. Reality is fragmentary, and we get the pieces we want and put them together to convey our own meaning. I guess this is why I make collage: To find things meaningful, or at least try. In my work there are almost uniquely men, in different sizes and shapes that hide partly or totally in the colourful and beautiful images of nature, as if being surrounded and as such gives him an excuse not to let himself out there at all. For me it is an internal fight to show the faces of men, because I tend to hide who I am, I guess, and find that I have to hide somehow. Balaclava.Q was one of the projects that first gave me an opportunity to share my work, therefore, the first that made me feel proud.

Shannon Hedges // USA Tactic 3 + 4

Nectar of Man (2020), acrylic on paper

Shannon Hedges is an illustrator, visual artist and designer. Hedges—as a storyteller—finds tales to tell everywhere they look. My creative energy and the bulk of my career has been focussed on published works: illustration, graphic stories and book collections. My artwork is also housed in private collections internationally. I use my quirky style and bold colour choices to grab the viewer and stop them in their tracks. While the main goal in my work is always to convey a specific moment in life’s narrative, be it grand or intimate, Queer Identity is always the subtext or subject of the body of my work. It is essential to show how distinctive that voice and viewpoint can be. What Balaclava.Q means to me is breaking down the reality around you and reconstructing it to create your own space.

Mateo Sierra // Colombia Tactic 2 + 4

Film still from Screen Test (2016), video piece

Mateo Sierra is a multidisciplinary Colombian artist, who lives and works in Bogotá (Colombia). He studied Visual Arts in the Pontifical Xavierian University. Since 2016 he has participated in several group exhibitions and filled the role of curator for others, such as BABY SHOWER (2016), at the El Parche Artist Residency and HUSTLER (2017), at MIAMI Gallery, as part of the Kuir Festival, Bogotá. Currently he is analysing gay culture and self-representation through painting and drawing, which served as tools for his latest publication Nostalgia Ultra (2020). He is also part of the Spread-hub digital artist residency. His work focuses on the analysis, appropriation and resignification of elements and practices of gay culture and social media. Through resources such as humour and irony, he confronts the viewers about the way they interact, think and define themselves. Screen Test (2016) is a video sequence developed as a triptych self-portrait, where the artist’s body is used to rethink the cultural phenomenon present in gay culture and social media. Clothes, hairstyles, dance and music are synchronised highlighting the performative character of identities. Works such as Untitled (Perfect Lovers) by Felix Gonzalez-Torres have been the genesis of Screen Test and my other later pieces such as Untitled (Perfect Lover) (2018), and Acto de Fé (2017). Balaclava.Q is a platform where LGBTQ+ artists can share and be critical of their work.

Conde Buffon // Venezuela Tactic 1 + 4

Untitled (2017), photograph

The dark art of Conde Buffon

My work is a projection of a part of myself;

A faithful reflection of my mind.

Digital graphic design, illustration, contemporary dance, bohemia, the alternative and the ethereal are areas I like to explore. It is the voice in my mind that transports me to a different world of dreams and ideas (im)possible to achieve. I love art in all its expressions: dance, theatre, sculpture, painting, the artistic nude and as much abstraction as possible. Speaking little, I express my feelings through my images. I imagine a different world—a world of fantasy. Balaclava.Q is an excellent platform for sharing queer art and culture filled with many talented LGBTQ+ artists.

James Robert Morrison // England Tactic 3 + 4

There Is Never More Than A Fag Paper Between Them - Phil + Jacob (2020), pencil on cigarette rolling paper

After graduating with an MA Fine Art from Central Saint Martins in 2002, Morrison worked in a central London commercial art gallery for 3 years. Following this he moved into the public sector, where over the past 14 years he has worked for the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, Arts Council England and the UK Government Art Collection. In January 2019, after a 17-year break, he went back into the studio to continue his art practice in London. My work explores the memories of discovering my homosexuality, the subsequent choice to conceal it, and the journey to an understanding and acceptance of it. I use a variety of mediums to create artwork that is playful in nature and discusses this personal matter with an honesty and openness. When I take the bus to my job, it's at the same time as teenagers are on their way to school. I overheard two of them discussing a gay couple they knew from their class, describing them as “never having more than a fag paper between them". I'd never heard this term before and it stuck in my mind, making me think about how different things were for me at that age. I didn't know any gay couples and there were no “out and proud” famous gay couples that I could look up to either. What I did have though was a collection of gay pornography and I guess the couples in these magazines were the ones I had to look up to. Sourcing imagery of these ‘imaginary' couples from my collection of gay pornography, pencil drawings are then created of them on fag (cigarette) papers. Balaclava.Q provided the first feature promoting my artwork. It enables me to search the work of other queer artists and make connections with them.

Joseph Abbati // USA Tactic 3 + 4

Tongue Out (2020), acrylic on canvas

Abbati is both an artist and curator from San Francisco (USA). He has worked with the LGBTQ+ community in San Francisco curating exhibitions, donating artwork to AIDS-related causes, and supporting local artists. For the past three years he has been curating for the office of Senator Scott Wiener in the State of California building in San Francisco, producing several exhibitions a year, featuring San Francisco Bay Area artists. The subjects of the exhibitions have included housing, night life, LGBTQ Pride, global climate, Asian artists, and Lantinx artists. In 2019 he was recognized by the Senate of California for his work in the arts. His artwork is colourful and graphic and looks at the human condition. The paintings in Joseph’s work use graphic lines, contours, and figures. The outlines of the figures in the paintings are sometimes placed off-register like in printmaking. This produces a visual vibration and depth to the figures that contrast to the flatness of the painting. In some of the paintings, colour blocks the contour of the figure to create a graphic image which references Joseph’s history and experience working in graphic design. In life, and on social media in particular, queer men often need to censor themselves in order to fit into heteronormative norms. This self-censorship can bring shame to queer men when they cannot express who they are. My paintings celebrate the expression of queer sexual identities and desires. When queer men have the opportunity to share their lives it allows them to live without shame and think positively about themselves. Balaclava.Q is about representation of LGBTQ+ artists who are disproportionately underrepresented.

Karl Lakolak // France Tactic 1 + 4

Satanic Altarpiece (2016), installation, performance and photograph

Karl Lakolak’s bodies can be: texts, materials, shapes, colours, shards and fragments, skulls and faces, bones and flesh, inside and outside, palimpsests and series, bodies crossed by echoes (both historical and symbolic), Christic images, death masks, anatomical plates, war-like heroes, flayed men, strange harlequins, tortured victims wounded from all wars, Dionysian dancers, tribal bodies… Balaclava.Q is a magical place that promotes freedom, liberty and tolerance... a place where we can meet many artists from all over the world.

Hugo Faz // Brazil Tactic 1 + 4

Sombra 1 (2020), photograph

‘SOMBRA’ (meaning ‘SHADOW’) speaks of censorship, repression, oppression and the consequent depression. In 2019 these photographs were made as part of the performative theatre show by the same name produced by my theatre company Teatro da Pombagira. In our productions we mix in performance, physical theatre, dance, daring explicit sexual acts and new technologies in live broadcasting, imagery and sound to portray images that stretch and lay bare our perspective of the world — that of the tough and often violent experience of living as a queer person in the big cities of today. The photographs submitted here are perfectly aligned with Balaclava.Q project ‘Tactic 1 Obscuring the Face’ in that the obscuring of the face (in several different ways) is representative or resultant from the process of invisibilisation and erasing of queer identities, history and individualities through censorship and repression — which are in a despairing fascist ascension in our times. Balaclava.Q means breaking barriers. A necessary international platform for queer artists to share their work and ideas, connect and collaborate in an absolutely inclusive environment.

Ric Stott // England Tactic 1 + 4

Untitled (2020), photograph

My creative practice began in painting and drawing but as that work has developed over recent years, I am finding more and more fruitful expression in performance, ritual and live art as I use costume and make up that help me move into queer shamanic identities. These images show documentation of performance rituals that draw on primal energies of the soul and body and open up sacred spaces in forgotten and neglected places, such as woodland behind an industrial estate. Finding inspiration from diverse experiences studying medical science, theology and art psychotherapy my work explores the intertwining of queer sensuality and spiritual experience. For me making art and writing is an exercise in fully embodied spirituality and an expression of a physical manifestation of the sacred. As my work progresses I seek to further investigate the interplay of queer body and spirit through painting, writing and ritual with an emphasis on the boundary blurring aspects of queer experience. All of this grounded in a meditative practice influenced by Paganism, Tantra, Christian mysticism and the archetypal images of the Tarot Deck. I have an MFA in Fine Art from Sheffield Hallam University and have had work commissioned by the President of the Methodist Church, the British Army and Roehampton University, amongst others. My writing has been published in anthologies of queer writers including ‘The Book of Queer Prophets’ (2020). Balaclava.Q was a catalyst for me to go deeper and be authentic about my queerness. Opening a doorway to a more primal and sensual way of expressing myself.

Callum Leo Hughes // Germany Tactic 3 + 4

Body - Shift - Command 20.35.33, (2017)

Callum Leo Hughes is a visual artist currently based in Berlin (Germany). Working with a combination of his own photography and found imagery, his work explores desire, and the malleability of images. His work also pays close attention to the way in which photographs respond to each other, with a focus on atypical printing methods. Balaclava.Q is a platform and a point of connection for queer artists all over the world.

Carmine Santaniello // USA Tactic 1 + 4

Obscured Face 1 (2018), lithograph

Based in New York, Santaniello has exhibited nationally and internationally with work appearing in numerous publications in the USA and Europe: The Art of Man magazine (USA), Mascular magazine (UK), Boner magazine (Germany), Character magazine (France), Noisy Rain, and Spunk magazine to name a few. My art is in the private collection of Charles Leslie as well as the permanent collection of the Leslie Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, New York City. In addition, I show with Mooi-Man Gay Male Art Gallery (The Netherlands), the Affordable Art Fair (Amsterdam), the ChimMaya Art Gallery, Los Angeles, and Filippo Ioco Studio Gallery, Barcelona, Spain. These works are surrounded by urban vocabulary such as graffiti and street art, and provide the viewer a voyeuristic look into a homoerotic environment of beauty, aggression, sensitivity and charged sexual desire. Through the juxtaposition of techniques and mediums, I create evocatively charged works of art. Each subject is confined behind a vale of marred imagery. The juxtaposition of these graffiti-like images over the portrait, stimulate a prurient response. The viewer is drawn deeper into the art through a kinetic veil of images to reach the subject itself: the portrait. As a queer artist I explore the male persona and visible form. Collage is an integral part of my art and is usually the starting point for each work. Employing the traditional method of cut and paste paper, I create a new series of works. While incorporating elements of my own photographs of exterior environments such as graffiti, street art and marred urban surfaces. These then go on to become various types of finished art on paper; Collages, Lithographs with or without Chine Colle, Monotypes, Unique Prints and Artist Books. Balaclava.Q is an international platform/venue for queer artists to showcase and feature their artwork and self-expression without hesitation or prejudice.

Matt Gale // England Tactic 3 + 4

Untitled (2020), wearable art, mixed media

Matt Gale is a British born artist who grew up in Southern California and trained as a biologist before studying for a MA in Fine Art. His practice focuses on queering commonly held perceptions of what is ‘natural’ and plays with notions of hybridity, both conceptually, and in his approach to materials and making. His work frequently explores vulnerability, masculinity and eroticism. This body of work explores the vulnerability of queer bodies through wearable sculptures that employ powerful or protective symbols. It examines the very different vulnerabilities that arise within queer spaces and relationships, such as negotiating intimacy and power dynamics. Forms and structures are frequently borrowed from the natural world and might be perceived as armour, but also as an attempt to attract, or seduce. There is a difficult tension created by the contradiction of seeking attention that inevitably leads to anxieties about being exposed, vulnerable, or being insufficient. It is the desire for the very thing that creates stressful situations that fascinates me as much as the strategies to cope. Balaclava.Q means a broad, inclusive discourse, a platform to examine frequently deeply personal, sometimes sticky or difficult issues in a safe space without censorship.

Password Yeltes // France Tactic 1 + 4

Janicole 1 (2020) , photograph and private performance

Password Yeltes, from a Spanish background was born in France and currently lives in Paris. He started his early career in dance, his true and first crush. Afterwards he moved to Applied Arts studies at the technological high school of Auguste Renoir in Paris. My work as an artist is about exploring my identity as a queer person, and through this to assume myself truly. My art represents my thoughts about what it means to be queer. Me -- A fantasy character, I call ‘Janicole’. Through Janicole I try to illustrate the concept of individual identity as choreography. In deliberately informal settings Janicole must face his true self and wonders to himself: “Am I fluid? A statistic? An outsider … ?” With my body as a vehicle, and by adopting poses Janicole exists. He is a polymorphic structure, like a tree with multiple blooms. Balaclava.Q is a platform where the “Queer” word is no longer a social insult, but claims to become a true masterpiece.

Wayne Lucas // England Tactic 3 + 4

Pants Portrait 3 (2020), photograph

I have been practicing as an artist and art educator for 30 years. I have set-up and run artists studios and project spaces and galleries in London since 2000, and during this time I have been exhibiting and delivering workshops. My work often takes on a biographical form exploring my relationship to the body and the space it inhabits while addressing the human condition, sexuality and isolation, reflecting the viewer’s own physical and mental fragility. Blurring the activities of painting and sculpture through a restless and obsessive accretion of materials including textiles, garments, found objects and paint, recent works are both a physical play with ideas and their representation. In taking a turn through the domestic and the decorative, process and forms are entwined at every turn, and while the narrative is constantly interrupted, the viewer is transported to a place of familiarity. A reference to art history anchors the works, which are neither optimistic nor pessimistic, but constantly oscillate between the two. A place between memory and fantasy. Balaclava.Q is a platform to exhibit and share work without editing concerns. Often work that reflects upon sexuality and gender is all too often censored and rejected by mainstream galleries. This is not a healthy place to be as a queer thinking creative. To have a lid put on your thinking is very unhealthy. Balaclava.Q embraces queer thinking and makes us visible.

Wilhelm Vincent // South Africa Tactic 1, 2 + 4

Untitled (2020), photograph

During Wilhelm Vincent’s odyssey to date he has already sojourned – and immersed himself – in multiple and highly contrasting parts of South Africa. His work has appeared throughout this country and beyond, having been featured as part of exhibitions in London, Australia, Greece, Poland, Los Angeles, Puerto Rico and New Orleans. His very personal style of curatorship, that has so far included many exhibitions and performance pieces, has always involved much more than the typical role – he brings his own sensibilities as an experienced and empathetic artist to create immersive and highly individual environments for fellow professional artists. Vincent’s photography work – at once both striking and subtle – has become renowned amongst collectors and artists. His work ranges from intimate portraits to editorials in international publications. His video works – often combining his own performance pieces – are potent and take the viewer into the depths of Vincent’s intensely personal and multi-layered creative sensibility. Wilhelm Vincent also combines the medium of paint to fuse the age-old practice with his digital endeavours. Commissioned works by Vincent include album covers, music and performance videos, photo-shoots and portraits. He is instinctively drawn to artistic branding and unique interpretation of design for creative and disruptive websites. He muses that Balaclava.Q was his gateway into the Queer world of visual and audio art. Although he had the machinery, Balaclava.Q was the implement he required to have a voice. It has been an important and enlightening (especially with intent) experience. He was one of the first Balaclava.Q mainstays, helping to establish ‘Tactic 2 - HIVideo’ in addition to starting the Balaclava.Q Instagram account and gathering over 1,000 followers. He muses that it was time well spent, connecting him with like-minded souls.

Richard Vyse // USA Tactic 1 + 4

Untitled (2016), watercolour and ink on paper

Internationally collected artist Richard Vyse has shown in galleries in Manhattan, Boston and Honolulu. He has studied at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan and taught at Pratt in Brooklyn. Besides his art being in collections in London, Paris, Berlin, and many cities in the United States, his art has been featured in many international gay and literary magazines such as Mascular (UK), Jack the Lad (UK), Advocate and RFD magazine to name a few. His art is in the Leslie Lohman Museum (New York). I focus on celebrating men in art - with a gay sensibility inspired by the face, body, colour and medium. Sensitive contour lines and spontaneous brush strokes capture a moment and a mood. My preferred medium is watercolour but I also create with Chinamarker, Chinese ink and acrylic as well. I leave it to the viewer to complete the fantasy or story. A balaclava can mean more than a ski mask. It can be the unknown, a mystery, concealing one’s identity or sexual desires.

Mavado Charon // France Tactic 1 + 4

Untitled (2020), ballpoint pen on paper

My drawings were spotted for the first time in the United States in 2009 by the legendary gay magazines ‘Butt’ and ‘Straight to Hell’, and then my artwork began to be published in France in faggot and underground magazines (‘Monster’, ‘Brut Hospital’, ‘Black Army’, ‘Timeless’, etc). In 2018, my book ‘Dirty’ published by Mania Press brings together the essentials of 10 years of drawing, and was crowned by the awarding of the ‘PrixSade du Livre d'art 2018’, at Suzanne Tarasieve Gallery, Paris (France). For the past year I have been exploring the genre of comics and working on an extraordinary graphic novel (‘Thurd’) of more than 500 pages, to be released in 2021 with Mania Press. I'm also working on an adaptation of the poem ‘La Sodomía en la Nueva España’ by the poet Luis Felipe Fabre with the editor Frac de Medusas for an exhibition to be held soon in Madrid, and then in Mexico. I tirelessly draw. For almost 10 years, swarming scenes of sadico-pederastic orgies. I only use a ballpoint pen, it allows me an unequalled velvety flexibility. I hide myself under the "Mavado Charon" pseudonym. This part of myself is a sort of a "Mister Hyde" who produces quivering work of violent sex, composing a post-apocalyptic chaos. Troubled arenas, barbaric camps, unhealthy squats, devastated highway ramps, peri-urban areas strewn with carcasses of burning cars are home to my frightful homosexual gangbangs. Balaclava.Q is a rich and powerful place to explore what LGBTQ+ artists do best, anywhere in the world. A place to meet new friends.

Robert Siegelman // USA Tactic 1 + 4

Untitled (2017), photograph

Robert Siegelman works primarily in photography, drawing and artists books. He teaches at Tufts University in Boston, and works with artists privately. His work is in many collections including the Boston Public Library, Harvard, MIT, The Leslie + Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art in New York City, The Leather Archives in Chicago, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Notable exhibits include shows at the Leslie + Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, and ‘untitled male id’ at the Angus-Hughes Gallery in London. In 2017 his drawing installation, ‘Do You Worry a Lot’ was exhibited at the Winfisky Gallery, Salem State University. My work asks questions about who is being photographed and who is being exposed? It asks who is reflected in these mirrors both inside the camera and lining the studio. The work talks about the process of taking a portrait both conceptually and in the moment. Is it a portrait of the model or the photographer? Is it about their interactions? The images explore ideas about desire, intimacy, consent and the nature of being touched. The pictures also talk about aging, a concept that photography is particularly useful at exploring. The models in these works are generally younger than the photographer, who is late middle-aged, and uses photography to talk about body image. Older queer men often feel invisible and undesirable in a culture where youth is valued very highly. This work is a layered portrayal of a personal coming to terms with aging and struggle with body positivity. Balaclava.Q is such an important group. It is a place where queer artists can get support and support each other. It is difficult for artists to get this kind of respect, so what Balaclava.Q does is so important.

Menelas // Greece Tactic 1, 2, 3 + 4

Untitled (2016), digitally manipulated photograph

My training consists of a lot of ‘L’Uomo Vogue’ and porn in the nineties. I am founder of the Athens based annual queer art exhibition ‘Civil Disobedience’ and the film festival ‘Satyrs and Maenads: the Athens Porn Film Festival’. The starting point and initial idea for this photo series was “naked boys with guns” which slowly developed into full-on homage to Bruce LaBruce’s ‘Raspberry Reich’. This series is a commentary on the Greek politics of the turbulent period between 2010-2014 viewed from the queer/gay perspective, but also extending the commentary to contemporary issues of the gay/queer lifestyle.

Balaclava.Q was the beginning of great friendships and artist collaborations across the world.

Jan Ziegler // Germany Tactic 1 + 4

Passerby (2019), acrylic on canvas

Berlin-based artist Jan Ziegler was born in southern Germany in 1974. He graduated in Design Studies in 2000 and has been working for numerous renowned international fashion brands since then. Jan’s abstract and figurative works appeal to the viewer’s unconscious perception, they seem placeless and bestow a mysteriously vacuous, almost hermetic sense of atmosphere. Jan usually takes researched photographs as initial inspiration for his works, but he is also influenced by afterimages of random encounters, visual impressions and specific light situations that reveal themselves to him. These are fleeting moments of enchantment that he preserves on canvas with acrylic paint. A swift, gestural work process allows for the consideration of intuitive aesthetic decisions that do not exclude the moment of chance. Jan’s work has been exhibited in national and international group shows and can be found in private collections in Europe, Australia and the United States. Since having discovered Balaclava.Q as a multifaceted representation of contemporary Queer art in 2018, I have been continuously following this interesting platform.

Eureka // Australia Tactic 3 + 4

The Look (2019), photograph

Eureka (a.k.a. Michael James O’Hanlon), is a Melbourne based artist and queer activist who has completed artist residencies across Europe and USA. He studied at Footscray Community Arts Centre Melbourne from 2007-9 achieving a Certificate in Further Education Art Studies and also has an Arts Degree. He is a professional member of the National Association for the Visual Arts (Australia) and teaches art from his studio at the Abbotsford Convent, Melbourne. As a queer artist my mission is to find those things hidden in plain sight. I use artmaking to come out as a gay man, a continuing process to counter the assumptions of everyday life. I like to create new possibilities through my work imagining a free future and a more inclusive present. Balaclava.Q means a chance to network with other Queer artists and feel appreciated and understood in an uncensored online international community.

Victoria Shone // UK Tactic 3 + 4

What’s Her Name? (2020), ink on paper

Shone was born in Reading, England and has been drawing since early childhood. However, after completing a Fine Arts Degree in 1998, she occupied the corporate world for about 15 years and sadly this left little time for the arts. Finally she made the leap to become a full time artist in 2013. Her work can be found in various art shops and galleries across the North West of England and she has been involved with the Inter-Arts Organisation in West Yorkshire since 2017. I like to combine a modern sensibility of confident empowerment and humour, and I tend to have a no nonsense feminist edge to the pieces I create. Text is central to my work and I use it to both emphasise my message and to draw the viewer in. When making the piece, ‘What’s Her Name?’, I posted a call out on social media for people to share the names they had heard used for the “vagina”. The response was overwhelming and encouraged me to repeat the process for the penis; hence, ‘What’s His Name?’ was born. I wanted to include the ridiculous to the sublime and to make the viewer laugh, but also to consider why we insist on using nicknames for these body parts which already have perfectly acceptable names. I am extremely proud that through this platform I have been able to participate in several exhibitions promoting mental health - which is a key theme in my work. Balaclava.Q is a fantastic platform at the forefront of Queer art and gives me the opportunity to promote my work and connect with other artists globally.

Victorien Biet // France Tactic 3 + 4

MEN ARE TRASH #1 (2019), photograph

Victorien Biet was born in France in 1998 and grew up in a little town not so far from Paris. Prior to making art Biet worked as a journalist for Queer newspapers in Paris. In 2018 Biet’s passion for photography began, and since joining Balaclava.Q he has participated in three exhibitions: Pride Art 2019, Oslo (Norway), God Save The Queen(s) (Brussels), and Quilt, Paris (France). I discovered my homosexuality at a very young age, an age where you’re not supposed to think about sex. My art is my history, my memories and my suffering. I keep indelible traces of past experiences inside my mind and soul and, for me, this cathartic process is fundamental. I would prefer that my work is read politically rather than aesthetically. The political arguments at the core of my work are at the forefront. Balaclava.Q is a way for me and my contemporaries to express our buried feelings.

Robert Flynt // USA Tactic 1 + 4

MAG; squat perineum (2017), digital image

Robert Flynt’s work has been widely exhibited in museums and galleries in the US and abroad since 1980. In 1992 Flynt was featured in New Photography at MoMA (NYC), where it is in the permanent collection, as well as in the Metropolitan Museum, International Centre of Photography, LA County Museum of Art, MFA Houston, among many others. Flynt has received fellowships from MacDowell, Light Work, Art Matters, Bogliasco (Italy) and Valparaiso (Spain). My image here is from a 2016-17 “quasi-portrait” series that focused on the obscured face as an armature to examine ideas of the formal portrait in dialogue/collaboration with the subject’s interest in expressing themselves physically and sensually. I proposed obscuring as part of the intuitive/improvisational nature of my collaborative process with dancers and performance artists. I welcome the refocusing of a viewer's attention away from the face, and on to considering the entire body, gesture, and sexual expression as integral to a “revealed” identity. My imagery has always examined the representation of the body and delighted in the dialogue of familiarity and strangeness, interior/exterior, open/hidden. Balaclava.Q is always an intriguing site to discover provocative and/or raunchy new work.

Pete Bridgstock // USA Tactic 3 + 4

Untitled (2020), coloured pencil on paper

Bridgstock graduated from the Laird School of Art and Liverpool College of Art in 1969, and has focused mainly on the male figure in watercolour. He was reviewed in The NY Times and NY Newsday and more recently he was featured in the winter edition of Hearts magazine. I started a virtual grand tour as a way to paint and draw people through the internet, and in places I was unlikely to visit, that evolved in to portraits of people, mainly gay men mostly from selfies posted on social media (all with the posters permission). Then “Sexting” became a thing and I have received many hundreds of requests to be drawn mainly from gay and queer men. My work celebrates the male body and sexualities. I grew up in a time when it was illegal for me to be gay and I refuse to put my art in the closet. Balaclava.Q means a sense of community world wide, of LBGTQ+ artists that can share without fear of censorship or retribution.

Soek Zwamborn // The Netherlands Tactic 1 + 4

Untitled (2017), photograph

This image started life as clothes. They wrap, protect and speak to us. They also limit us through preconceived notions and unwritten rules. From clothes as a canvas for my embroidered drawings, to life-size embroideries for installations, I use photography as research and expression of what it means to be a man: the man that I am and “man” in general. However, maleness is not fixed. I love mixing the figurative and the abstract, the emotional and the reasoning. I don’t do “in your face”. I love expressive works, but I want these works to remain frail and sensitive. A certain vulnerability... because it is about being male. Hence the use of extra thin thread embroidery, or see-through, delicate materials. Holes in the fabric reveal my skin and the fabric itself enhances the postures I adopt. Balaclava.Q means to me the recognition of myself as artist and as Queer. Balaclava.Q is a gathering and a source of inspiration.

Nigel Grimmer // England Tactic 1 + 4

Roadkill Family Album (Mum, Fritton, Norfolk) (2016), photograph

Nigel Grimmer was born in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk and lives in London (UK). Grimmer has a Masters in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins, London and is Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at The University of Bedfordshire; he is also a Visiting Lecturer in both Fine Art and Photography in a number of UK Universities. He is a mixed media artist researching the language of the photographic portrait. Historically his investigation focused on domestic photography, specifically the family album. Recently he has begun to study the self-portraits produced for use within social media, particularly dating apps, Grindr and Instagram. Nigel describes his work as anti-portraiture; the model’s face is obscured in the majority of his photographs through a variety of devices. Grimmer has fifteen years of exhibition experience and has exhibited his projects extensively throughout the UK and USA. My current project ‘Analogue Disruptions’ considers the disrupted photographic image. For one-hundred-and-ninety years technological advances have refined photographic processes diverting attention from the physicality of the print. Within this digital age our images now carry the scars of our technology. It is becoming increasingly difficult to look past the once invisible surface of the photograph, to enter the illusionary space of the image. The photographs we view on our mobile devices carry emojis or ‘Snapchat’ filters that disregard the perspective of the image we view, these images are then layered on top of each other with clocks, icons, menus and dead pixels further drawing our eye to the surface.

Balaclava.Q represents a queer art community and network that curates work without bias towards experience, training or geographical location.

Bryan Hoffman // USA Tactic 3 + 4

Sudarium - Enough Already (2020), acrylic on wood

I'm a self taught artist who has spent 15 years in the fashion industry in NYC. In 1993 I retired and took up painting full time. Back in 1988 I had a HIV+ diagnosis and have created work which was shown by VISUAL AIDS (New York), and as a result I had a mention in ‘Art in America’ magazine. So while validation is important to me, it is not the reason I make art. This series of paintings began out of work with at-risk and homeless LGBTQ+ youth in Detroit, with an emphasis on the “T”. Since then I have expanded that idea to include anyone who may have been considered or called the "other". I work in acrylics because of the immediacy they provide, adding graphite, coloured pencil and gold leaf to enhance the paint. I usually paint the subject gazing unsentimentally, directly at the viewer without any identifying context. As if they were challenging the viewer. I use circles, repetition and other forms to provide a sense of order, chaos, or somewhere in between, depending on where the subject's life is at that moment in time. This forces the viewer to discern the subject's story without social cues. Balaclava.Q was the encouragement I needed during a time when I did not feel particularly relevant or if I should continue. It made a difference.

Marval A. Rex // USA Tactic 1 + 4

G-d And The Lean Rex (2020), photograph

Marval A. Rex is a Los Angeles based artist, actor and cultural producer. Rex has directed, produced and performed in genre-bending live artworks since 2015, as well as directed films. His first short film Man, and Me toured internationally in 2018. In 2020, Rex hosted a solo show in Los Angeles with support from LAST Projects Gallery, showcasing ceramics, paintings, and performances. Rex has received generous support from USC Roski, Prosjektskolen in Oslo, the Can Serrat Residency, DFBRL8R Gallery, Columbia University, and the National Conference for the Advancement of Ceramic Arts (NCECA). ‘The Cyber Body Series (Self Portraits of Something Else)’ has been growing ever more slippery since its conception in the autumn of 2017. The series' name alludes to Ana Mendieta's ‘Earth Body’ series and is, like hers, a living archive of performative queer slippages that haunt geospatial locations around the world. Living in the United States and being white-male-adjacent, I have found the ‘Cyber Body Series’ to be both a direct interrogation of white American masculinity as well as an uneasy rumination on white-male-dominated spaces. Balaclava.Q means community to me. It is a space for me to connect with other Queer and "outsider" artists who are unabashedly discovering their voice through art. Balaclava.Q is like drinking a tall glass of water on a hot summer's day.

William Bybee // USA Tactic 3 + 4

Longing (2020), ink on paper

William Bybee is an MFA Candidate at Idaho State University. His research has been centred around his love of abstract art. Some of the topics in his work are based on the concept that we as humans are all the same but put together in different patterns. Abstract painting is at the heart of who I am as an artist. Through abstraction I can express who I am as an artist and as an individual. Abstraction has given me a way to talk about subjects that matter to me, but not force my thoughts on a viewer that is not ready to receive this message. Through abstraction I explore the worlds of codes, codification, and Queer Abstraction. Codification is the non-verbal communication that is at the heart of the Queer world. It is through these signs that we recognise other Queer people and signal to the world that we are Queer too. Balaclava.Q means “community” to me. They are a community of Queer people all over the world.

Emil Jamieson // USA Tactic 3 + 4

Untitled (2019), photograph

Apart from a few high school classes, art has never been in my training. I have two degrees in linguistics, I am a gardener, and I teach piano. But what I’ve found to be personally important is to put a bit of myself into everything I do. My music, my words, the arrangements of artifacts on my shelves — they’re all done with great intention. Likewise, these photos are very intentional visual representations of various parts of myself. It’s quite an emotional process for me. I suppose the development of my social media, collaborating with other artists, and being invited to contribute to Balaclava.Q are what I consider my artistic milestones. I never intended for this to be art, but as I worked with these photos of myself, I began processing the intersection of my conservative Christian upbringing with my sexual identity. Traditional manifestations of modesty and other virtues seem irrelevant to much of Queer culture, but it often seems that we’ve thrown the ethical baby out with the heteronormative bathwater. My art is personal; it documents my attempt to reconstruct some kind of Queer moral framework, if only for myself. Christianity ingrained shame into me regarding my body and my beauty, and I’m attempting to unlearn it, instead keeping for myself what I value most: my mind, my identity, my sense of self. The clearly religious (though mostly sacrilegious) themes reflect what I both cherish and despise the most about Christianity: its exaltation of the righteous. This is a critique of who is considered righteous and who actually is righteous. Balaclava.Q is resetting the paradigm and picking up where we left off in 1981.

Stiofan O’Ceallaigh // UK Tactic 2 + 4

Decisions/Decisions (2016), altered photograph

Stiofan O’Ceallaigh (the artists birth name in Irish: Stephen Kelly) is a multimedia artist and curator born in Ireland. He received a Foundation degree in Art + Design (University of Ulster, 1999), and then graduated with First Class Honours in Fine Art (University of Liverpool, 2002). He worked for 16 years at executive level in the UK arts sector and in 2015 O’Ceallaigh shifted focus to making art full time. His work broadly spans photography, painting, digital, poetry and video art. In 2016 he founded Balaclava.Q. O’Ceallaigh continues to curate the project. My work is a personal journey. It seeks to emancipate the viewer by promoting and encouraging discourse around areas such as HIV, Queer art censorship, art as activism, the body politic and internalised shame/stigma > pride. In ‘Decisions/Decisions’ - an anti-bullying piece - is a post-photographic work in which I have placed words and symbols on a portrait of myself as a toddler. A cathartic effort to negate and squash negative experiences in growing up in a small, rural, Catholic, Northern Irish town. I was literally “the only gay in the village”. The title suggests a crossroads, or a potential turning point. In this piece I claim ownership of the word(s) used to hurt me as a child, and by placing them on gay child’s body he is transformed personally and politically to achieve a state of empowerment. ’Decisions/Decisions’ also speaks of a homocondition; a commonality, and pre-programmed state of constant flux, which in turn, is “rubber stamped” with a more global contradiction: in some countries Queers are celebrated and handed marriage equality, while on the other side of Terra we receive life and death sentences. This contradiction of be(ing) promotes anxieties around validation, rejection and self-acceptance. By making work as Stiofan O’Ceallaigh I am displaced, but empowered to speak my truth(s) through my art. ‘Decisions/Decisions’ was fist exhibited at exhibitions ‘HE’ at LAST Projects gallery, Los Angeles (USA, 2017), then at ‘Pride Art Oslo’ (for ‘Oslo Pride’) at Oslo Town Hall (Norway, 2017), then at ‘Queer Art Show #5: Revolt’ (for ‘Manchester Pride’) at the Penthouse NQ, Manchester (UK, 2017), then ‘Queer Curfew’ at The Curfew Tower, Cushendall (Northern Ireland, 2018), then ‘Tíu leiðbeiningar (fyrir hinsegin fólk)’ or ‘Ten Instructions (For Queer Artists)’ at Gallery 78, Reykjavik (Iceland, 2018), then at ‘Queer As I’ (for ‘World Pride’ and ‘Stonewall 50’) at HERE Arts Centre, New York (USA, 2019), then ‘Queer Voices #2’ and ‘#3’ presented by Perceptions Warehouse, London (UK, 2019), and more recently ‘Decisions/Decisions’ was exhibited as part of ‘Cerritos Collects: Highlights from the Permanent Collection’, Los Angeles (USA, 2019). Balaclava.Q has helped me connect with LGBTQ+ artists all over the world. It has been an honour and a challenge, but ultimately one of the most fulfilling experiences I‘ve ever had in working directly with artists.

Zachary Z. Handler // USA Tactic 3 + 4

Zevel 02 (2016)

I have always collected what is left-behind: the Hooters receipt from my sixteenth birthday where my father took me just to see how I reacted to the waitresses. My visual art is my chance to construct the world(s) I saw when I was younger. I create dialogues about romanticising bric-a-brac, shopping mall celebrities, and how maybe, just maybe, it’s Maybelline©. Magical realism is the muse that guides my hand to balance object upon object. I combine photography with an arts and crafts aesthetic to create fanfare, pomp, and circumstance. I tap objects on their funny bones just to see what happens. From first love to first heartbreak and back again, these mementos mingle with 1980s ephemera, taking shape inside DIY dioramas. I choose to document these things because they carry a certain something that runs throughout my life — something I want to share with others. Balaclava.Q means validation. Balaclava.Q means home. Balaclava.Q means family.

Hue Hale // Germany Tactic 1, 2 + 4

I - Moneylands (2020) from the He Wasn’t There series, photograph

Hue Hale is a visual artist who was born and raised in Ireland. He has a background in fine art photography and his work focuses on conceptualising the darkness faced in everyday life, exploring his identity and mental health. Hale frequently uses self-portraiture and his body to portray the mindset he is in. He uses photography cathartically, as a method of therapy. His graduate project He Suffers With His Nerves which serves as a document of the fragile mental health of a young Queer man in Ireland, has been very well-received in particular. Hale immigrated to Berlin (Germany) and this has significantly impacted his work: I was born in Ireland on the cusp of homosexuality being decriminalised, although attitudes were changing and becoming more positive towards the LGBTQ+ community, I was raised with conflicting ideals. These ideals have had a direct impact on shaping my identity growing up. I was never taught about how same-sex relationships should function, or how two men could love each other romantically. ‘He Wasn't There’ is a self-reflective document of key points in the lifespan and fallout of a co-dependent relationship. It's told in three chapters. Through viewing each chapter in succession as a single narrative, the project shifts focus from the impermanence of a lover's presence to that of the identity of the subject within the images. I view Balaclava.Q as a significant source and archive of Queer art.

Emmanuel Barrouyer // France Tactic 1, 2 + 4

Silencio X (2016), photograph

Does gender define us? Can it be defined? How do we identify ourselves? ‘Silencio’ is a self-portrait series, especially created exclusively and in response to Balaclava.Q’s ‘Tactic 1: Obscuring the face’. Here, I explore gender and self, and whether gender is cultural or personal, learned or natural. It represents my inner world, and also is an homage to Pierre Molinier’s work. “Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.” - Oscar Wilde. I consider Balaclava.Q to be the safest place where one can share Art without censorship, shame or fear of judgement.

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Scott Baxter // Scotland Tactic 3 + 4

Feral Creatures 4 (Picnic Table) (2018), digital print

Scott Baxter, born 1970, graduated from Edinburgh College of Art, 2015 with First Class Honours in Intermedia Art. Baxter has received a number of awards and scholarships: The Edinburgh College of Art Scholarship, The ECA College Research Award, The Barns-Graham Travel Award and the Katherine Michaelson Prize. He has also been selected for exhibitions across the UK including: New Contemporaries at the Royal Scottish Academy; New Scottish Artists at DRAF/Fleming Collection, London; and Satellite at Summerhall, Visual Arts Scotland, Edinburgh. He has also lectured at Napier University (Scotland) on community art practice and has chaired panel discussions on living with HIV and Queer digital culture for LGBT+ charity organisations.

My interests include sexual identity, performativity, and the narrative forms of queer experience. My research is ethnographic, combining personal experiences, interviews, Queer culture, and social media interaction. My practice includes auto-fictional prose, spoken-word performance, digital drawing, painting and installation. My current practice builds upon a series of digital drawings, titled ‘Feral Creatures’, which I produced from online footage of self-made pornography filmed in cruising areas, a Queered landscape temporarily created by gay men for sex. Stills from the footage were transformed into drawings similar to ‘painting by numbers’ kits. The images though, were incomplete, the Queer body unpainted, denoting a dying culture of cruising but also allowing the viewer to paint themselves into the picture. Balaclava.Q is home for a Queer faction of artists I identify with. It creates a platform with agency and opportunity in an otherwise hegemonic artworld.

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Massimiliano Usai // Italy Tactic 1 + 4

Chaos 5 (2019), photograph

Massimiliano Usai was born in 1976 in Bologna (Italy), where in 2005 he graduated in Contemporary Urban Planning at Dams. Since 2005 he has worked as a designer of jewellery, bags and various accessories for fashion houses and brands such as Moschino, Ferré, Etro, Armani, Versace, Cavalli, and Louboutin. As a musician he curated and edited the arrangements of the singer-songwriter Roberto Vitale and at the advice of the curator and art historian Eleonora Frattarolo in the last few years he has specialised in visual art. In 2017 he participated in various exhibitions, some of which include the Festival of the Arts Ar (t) cevia at Jesi and at Dialogica, curated by Francesco Piazza, at the Bellomo Museum in Ortigia. In 2018 he had solo exhibitions in Palermo and Catania called Flowers and Bodies curated by Eleonora Frattarolo and Francesco Piazza. Since 2018 he has taken part in L'ArieteLab at Galleria L’Ariete Artecontemporanea.

I've always loved the interaction between art, wood design and photography. Balaclava.Q is simply fun, gorgeous and unexpected.

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Ivan El Terrible // Puerto Rico Tactic 1, 2 + 4

Untitled (2020), digital image

In New York, he worked for a year as a stripper. One day while backstage He listened to his Intro … this time it was as ‘Ivan the Terrible’ which He loved. To this day He continues to create performance art events, occasionally nude; cinema and other events. In these last 6 years, He has dedicated himself to writing scripts, poetry, stories, directing short films, acting and establishing and managing the HABLAME SUCIO Art/Film Festival (Puerto Rico). ‘Ivan el Terrible’ (also known as Jose Luis Cortes) is a mural that breathes, a tongue slashing monolith, covered in symbols, like hieroglyphs. Through this Avant Garde monument of skin, heart, soul and narrative, Ivan camouflages behind his multimedia persona to make you come closer. He has a plan you see; he is standing there naked, and his body is a knife that cuts through the wind. He has explored his past and his present with other short films, performances and works of art and once you discover his portfolio you will discover that this man is in transit. He is unveiling his life in so many ways and the work itself is becoming more structured, more concise, more comprehensive in its purpose in telling a story. Balaclava.Q is the perfect platform for me and my art practice.

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Smart Barnett // England Tactic 3 + 4

Suffolk Poof (2020), mixed media on cloth

After graduating from Manchester Metropolitan University with a degree in Embroidery Smart relocated to London, where he worked for several years in the fashion industry. Through 2018/2019 Smart curated the regular event Spare Parts - a safe and celebratory space for Queer artists, DJ’s and designers to come together. The accessibility of pornography, online sexual exhibitionism and the ease of creating and sharing such content fascinates me. Images posted on social media to titillate followers and explicit photographs sent via dating apps to find sex, or seek approval. It was in this place I found my initial spark of inspiration. As my experience unfolds, my work is developing into something more personal and subjective. Leading me to question my own obsession with pornographic imagery, self image and my own exhibitionist tendencies. My self portraits are inspired by and explore my sexual fantasies, obsessions, insecurities and trauma. Embroidery is at the core of my practice and the contrast of this often perceived, traditional technique combined with the imagery and themes within my work can be disarming and provocative. Inside the safe, normative space of embroidery, I aim to create artworks that are expressive and bold yet intimate in their dimensions. Balaclava.Q is a community of individuals with shared ideals. A place to connect and find inspiration, this is more important for us right now more than ever.

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Artmando Bravo // Mexico Tactic 1 + 4

Untitled* (2016), digital image

I was born 1990, at Delicias city, Chihuahua. I worked as a teacher for a while and then completed a master's degree in Design and Arts at the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana - in addition to being a part-time drag queen, called ‘Lennox Gyarada’. I consider myself to be a multimedia artist. I do not stick with specific techniques, rather I enjoy mixing techniques and exploring the unique potentials of each medium and process. My work generally talks about, and explores my own anxieties and mental health, and the potential therein for self-destruction. I prefer to use a pale palette to contrast and compliment aggressive states, such as anxiety. Anxieties that stem from growing up gay and belonging to the LGBTQ+ community. Through making art I hope to investigate and overcome these anxieties.

Balaclava.Q is a new opportunity for me, the fact that they chose my work for the cover seems incredible to me, and I'm very grateful for this opportunity.

* ”JOTO EL QUE LO LEA” translates to English as “JOTO THE ONE WHO READS IT”.

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John Waiblinger // USA Tactic 1 + 4

Urban Forest (2016), altered photograph/digital print

John Waiblinger is a new media artist who explores masculinity and desire through his post photographic compositions. First exhibiting his work at the Los Angeles Centre for Digital Art in 2014, Waiblinger’s work presents men he has appropriated via their pornographic performance and reconstructs them within the realm of his imagination. My original statement in 2016 still stands: "The Mask" is a very familiar and intimate concept for any Queer boy or man negotiating the terrain of the heteronormative, homophobic world into which we are thrust. This use of "The Mask" as a tool to pass as normative, in a world that threatens us with social disapproval and even physical violence, becomes a mechanism for survival. Yet this seemingly repressive act of hiding of the self, also contains the germs of great creativity - after all building this mask for one who finds himself outside the tropes of standard masculinity and heterosexual desire requires a significant amount of creative performance. No longer desiring to “hide” but instead to fully express myself, my own art is motivated by my desire to create a physical manifestation of my fantasies and desires, my romanticised idealisation of male beauty and tender embrace. Balaclava.Q provides me the opportunity to view art and artists I’m unfamiliar with providing me with a challenge to my own perspectives. Sometimes the work is quite uncomfortable – that’s most engaging.

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David Jester // USA Tactic 3 + 4

We’re Here (2020), acrylic on canvas

I always drew and painted. I received my BFA and then afterwards I received an MFA from Rutgers University. I won first prize in a national Pride competition in 2018 which included a show at the top of One World Trade during NYC Pride and I have been in 20 publications featuring paintings from the past 3 years. This current series of paintings is of men in swimming pools and I was inspired by gay life online, but it has become so much more to me. I believe we are living in a time where being visible and proud is more important than ever. How we present ourselves to each other and how we treat each other also fascinates me. I love painting my subjects in pools. Pools are metaphor rich environments. They are worlds that exist next to and are a part of the broader world, much like the gay community is a subset of society. People inside the pool looking out or those outside looking in have a slightly distorted view of each other. Pools are fluids, purity, cleanliness, suspension, temperature, inclusion, exclusion, isolation. Each painting is like a chapter in a very long story. Slowly unfolding, slowly exploring the diversity within the Gay and/or MSM communities. Similar to the Balaclava.Q Tactic 3 title - ‘ABSTRACT ACTIVISM’ is the most important thing we can do right now. Our rights are in danger and visibility is key to combat this.

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NAME Alexander Hernandez Andrew Mc Phail Artmando Bravo Bryan Hoffman Callum Leo Hughes Carmine Santiniello Chris Von Steiner Conde Buffon Connor Shields Daniel Nassoy David Acosta David Jester Dominique Gora Dorian Katz Emil Jamieson Emmanuel Barrouyer Eureka Fernando Carpaneda François Harray George Kanis George Lee Giacomo Salemo G O D Photography Gregory Farrar Scott Henrique X Hue Hale Hugo Faz Ian Bertolucci Ingrato Igor Zeiger Ivan El Terrible James Robert Morrison

YEAR COUNTRY 1986 Mexico 1961 Canada 1990 Mexico 1960 USA 1991 Germany 1955 USA 1965 Belgium 1955 Venezuela 1997 UK 1958 France 1958 USA 1960 USA 1977 Germany 1967 USA 1992 USA 1969 France 1957 Australia 1967 USA 1962 Brussels 1988 Greece 1996 UK 1994 Italy 1958 UK 1949 USA 1982 Brazil 1993 Germany 1984 Brazil 1995 Italy 1990 Germany 1997 Israel 1990 Puerto Rico 1979 UK

LGBTQ+? Q/G Q/G G G G // G Q/G G G G Q/G T Q/B/L G // Q G G G G NB / Q // G // Q B NB / Q Q G G G

PRONOUN he he he he he he he he he he he he she she he he he he // he he they he he // he he they they he he he

WEBSITE www.hernalex.com www.andrewmcphail.com // // www.callumleohughes.com www.carminesantiniello.com www.chrisvonsteiner.com // www.connorshields.com www.danielnassoy.com www.casadeduende.com www.davidmjester.com // // // www.emmanuelbarrouyer.com www.eurekamichael.blogspot.com.au www.carpaneda.com www.francoisharray.com // www.george-lee.com www.ianetjacques.com www.flickr.com/g_o_d_photography/ www.gregoryfarrarscott.com www.ique-in-vogue.blogspot.com www.huehale.online www.hugofaz.art www.ianetjacques.com www.ingrato.cl www.igorzeiger.com // www.jamesrobertmorrison.com

UN//TITLED CONTRIBUTORS DIRECTORY

INSTAGRAM @hernalex_art @andmcphail @artmandobravo @bryan.hoffman.18 @callumleohughes @carmine1955 @chrisvonsteiner @condebuffon @connorshields @nassoydaniel @wickedgayways @d_jester_art @manouvelleamie @poppers_the_pony @ej_ma_im_le @emmanuelbarrouyer @eurekaartist @fernandocarpaneda @francoisharray.photographer @georgekanis @georgewl_ @ianetjacques @godphotography @gregoryfarrarscott @henriquexhenrique @huehale @hugofaz @ianetjacques @ingrato.cl @igor.zeiger @ivan_es_el_problema @james_robert_morrison

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Jan Ziegler Jasmina Krajačić Jay Rechsteiner Johann D’Nale John Waiblinger Jonathan David Smyth Joseph Abbati Justin Corriveau Karl Lakolak Marc Kiska Marval A Rex Massimiliano Usai Mateo Sierra Matt Gale Mavado Charon Menelas Nigel Grimmer Password Yeltes Pete Bridgstock Randomagus Ric Stott Richard Vyse Robert Flynt Robert Siegelman Ron Kibble Sade Shoalane Satadru Sovan Santiago Estellano Scott Baxter Serpil Yildiz Shan Leigh Pommeroy Shannon Hedges Sian Jones Smart Barnett Soek Zwamborn Stiofan O’Ceallaigh Tristan Marie Biallas Victoria Shone Victorien Biet Wayne Lucas Wilhelm Vincent William Bybee Xaq Iria Tyler Zachary Z Handler Zahra Hoccom

1974 1968 1971 1972 1953 1987 1956 1985 1956 1983 1992 1976 1994 1968 1972 1974 1980 1975 1952 1976 1975 1942 1956 1954 1974 1991 // 1977 1970 1990 1988 1972 1986 1975 1954 1980 1988 1976 1998 1965 // 1974 1981 1980 1995

Germany Croatia UK UK USA USA USA USA France Norway USA Italy Colombia UK France Greece UK France USA Spain UK USA USA USA USA Botswana India Argentina UK Turkey Canada USA UK UK Netherlands UK Germany UK France UK South Africa USA Australia USA UK

G // // Q/G Q G Q Q/G // Q/G T // G G Q G Q Q Q G Q/G G G Q/G G Q/A // G G // Pan Q L G Q/G G NB / T L Q/C G Q G G Q L

he she he he he he he he // he any // he he he he he he he he he he he he he she // he he // she he she he he he ne she he he he he he he she

// www.facebook.com/Jasmina-Krajacic-Art-154364718036312 www.jayrerchsteiner.com www.johanncreates.art www.johnwaiblinger.com www.jonathandavidsmyth.com www.josephabbati.art // www.lakolak.info www.marckiska.com www.marvalarex.com www.massiusai.wixsite.com/spazio-omniae // www.mattgale.co.uk www.mavadocharon.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/MenelasArt www.nigelgrimmer.com www.passwordyeltes.com // www.randomagus.com www.ricstott.com www.manartbyvyse.blogspot.com www.robertflynt.com // www.ronkibbleart.com www.sadeshoalane.wordpress.com www.satadrusovan.wixsite.com/mysite www.santiagoestellano.com www.scottbaxterarts.org www.serpilyildiz.co.uk www.deviantart.com/thewhineregion www.shannonhedges.com www.sianjonesart.co.uk www.smartbarnett.co.uk www.blondfabric.com www.linktr.ee/stiofan.artist www.tristanmariebiallas.de www.victoriashoneart.com // www.wayne-lucas.com www.wilhlemvincent.com // sites.google.com/view/vortexrazor/home www.zzhandler.com www.zahrahoccom.com

@janziegler_berlin @jasminakrajacic @jayrechsteiner @johanncreates @johnwaiblingerart @jonathandavidsmyth @jabbati @anxietydreams @karllakolak @marckiska @marvalarex @spazioomniae @mateosierra @matthew.r.gale @mavadocharon @menelas @nigerl-grimmer-artist @password_yeltes @pete.bridgstock.art @randomagus @ricstott @artbyvyse @robertflyntfoto @robertsiegelman @ron_kibble @sade_shoalane @satadrusovan @este.este @walter_lewd @_serpilyildiz_ @the.whineregion @segdehs @notes_to_islanders @smart_barnett @madebysoek @stiofan.artist @tristan_biallas @victoriashoneart @victorienbiet @mrwtluke @wilhelmvincent @william_bybee_art @vortexrazor7 @zzhandler @zahra_hoccom

SPOTLIGHT ARTWORK - Issacs's Sacrifice After Caravaggio (2017), photograph By François Harray (Brussels) Featured as part of Balaclava.Q Tactic 3 project Abstract Activism (2019)

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SPOTLIGHT ARTWORK - Dreaming (2016), photo / giclée print By Dominique Gora (Germany) Featured as part of Balaclava.Q Tactic 1 project Obscuring the Face (2016)

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BALACLAVA.Q // HOW TO GET INVOLVED Are you an LGBTQ+ artist? If the answer is yes, then Balaclava.Q would love to see your artwork. By having your art featured by Balaclava.Q means that you will automatically be joining a network of 375+ emerging and established LGBTQ+ creatives from around the world who explore Queer themes and/or concerns in their art.

Balaclava.Q can provide you with the following opportunities: A feature about you and your art on one of our websites. Your feature is then added to the Balaclava.Q archive of Queer contemporary art (commencing 2016), Simultaneously your work will be promoted and shared with our followers via our official social media pages, and finally You will also receive exclusive invitations to submit and/or exhibit your work in a Balaclava.Q curatorial project, which includes: exhibitions, screenings, publications and art events.

Terms + Conditions: ELIGIBILITY Applications are accepted from collectives, groups, partnerships, collaborations, and emerging and established artists from any country. ARTWORK Balaclava.Q is open to a multiplicity of aesthetics, mediums and representations, providing your art explores Queer themes and/or concerns, DEADLINE There are NO DEADLINES. You can send in your submission at any time (except for specific Balaclava.Q Projects), FEES There are NO FEES.

Submission Requirements: Please provide the following: A minimum of 5, and a maximum of 25, examples of your work, including titles, dates and medium (if applicable). All art forms are accepted. Please send moving image files as a download as links to films cannot be accepted, So that we can understand the reach of this project we ask you to provide the name of the country you live in, Please include an Artist Biography which explains to the reader your art background, Also include an Artist Statement which tells the reader about the artwork you are submitting to Balaclava.Q, A CV (if you have one). If you send in your CV it will automatically be added to the bottom of your online feature, A nice touch is to add a photograph of yourself in your feature (but only if you feel comfortable with this), and finally Links to your relevant social media and/or website.

Balaclava.Q is inclusive and welcomes submissions from all LGBTQ+ emerging and established artists. For further information please scan the QR code above. To join the Balaclava.Q community please email your submission to: balaclava.q@gmail.com

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BALACLAVA.Q // HOW TO SUPPORT BALACLAVA.Q

We are fortunate in that to date Balaclava.Q has managed to function with zero budget, however, as the size of our archive and membership increases we inevitably incur overheads and direct costs. There are 3 main ways that you can support Balaclava.Q in presenting Queer art: 

DONATE ART Balaclava.Q regularly accepts donations of artworks to be resold to raise funds for Balaclava.Q Projects. The intention is that we will stockpile the artworks and then annually produce an art sale.

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DONATE TIME + SKILLS If you have time to spare and skills or networks you would like to share Balaclava.Q is always looking for more people to get involved.

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DONATE FUNDS You can send a cash donation to Balaclava.Q at any time. All funds raised go towards creating platforms and opportunities for international Queer artists. To donate is simple and easy with PayPal (scan the QR code above, left, or go to www.paypal.com) and send your cash gift to balaclava.q@gmail.com in PayPal. Alternatively you can make a donation to our GoFundMe (scan the QR code above, right or go to www.gofundme.com and type ‘balaclava.q’ into the search bar. All payment methods are accepted). If you donate via PayPal we receive 100% of your donation. Should you donate via GoFundMe please note that GoFundMe take 4% off your donation to cover processing fees. Thank you in advance for any support you can offer Balaclava.Q.

If you can help or require any further information then please email balaclava.q@gmail.com

(Pictured above): E-Flyer for the Balaclava.Q Fundraiser + Art Sale (online and at Leeds Queer Art Market, UK, 2019). Thank you to all the artists who generously donated artwork. Because of your kindness and generosity we reached our £1,000 target to produce UN//TITLED—An Anthology of Queer Contemporary Art // 2016-2020.

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SPOTLIGHT ARTWORK - Official poster for film Impunity Uganda (2016) By Isaac Matovu + Ismile Matovu (Uganda) Featured as part of Balaclava.Q Tactic 2 project HIVideo (2016)

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SPOTLIGHT ARTWORK - A GOSHAWK, A DOUGLAS DC-3 AND HOMOPHOBIC ATTACK (2017), acrylic and emulsion on canvas By Sian Jones (Channel Islands) Featured as part of Balaclava.Q Tactic 1 project Obscuring the Face (2017)

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Inspirational...

Inspirational magazine is a full sponsor of Balaclava.Q, as it is of Queer art and artists Through interviews and portfolios Inspirational magazine helps to promote and support working artists across the world

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...magazine

Subscription to Inspirational is super easy Check our generous packages @ https://payhip.com/b/MNp6 Inspirational Facebook: @djhinspirational Inspirational Instagram: @inspirationalartmagazine

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