Hosted by the Open Eye Gallery, the exhibition displays two bodies of work by photographers who have produced imagery focused on sexual and gender identity, as well as the issues surrounding representation around the world.
Robin Hammond’s Where Love is Illegal consists of a number of intimate portraits of subjects around the world who have been affected by discrimination, prejudice or censorship through their sexuality and/ or gender identity. Included alongside the portraits is text by the subjects written in their own language, which includes a translated version if this isn’t English, with what the subject would like the viewer to know about them or a message they would like to give.
I found viewing this body of work to be extremely emotional, and it really opened my eyes to the hardships faced by members of the LGBQT community around the world. I particularly liked how what the subjects wanted to say had been used as part of the exhibition, as this made the work even more personal and really highlighted the severity of the hardships faced towards people in the community.
Ren Hang’s work experiments with the categories people use to explain the world, such as by gender (male/female), species or by being organic or artificial. These categories can be fairly limiting, and Hang’s work aims to neglect these categories and explore the human body in a new and experimental way.
Underpinning Hang’s work is the desire to express sexual autonomy for people in China and all over the world, and the artist sadly took his own life in 2017.
Hang’s work also drew my attention to the discrimination faced by the LGBTQ community around the world. I liked the abstract approach Hang took towards the human body and how it is presented, and Hang’s work has encouraged me to think outside how things are conventionally displayed, and I may apply this to my own work in future.
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