close up image of boots by photographer Arlo Lawton taken at YSP
BEACON (without words I found myself home on our stomping ground) (2022)
On Queer Ground, Yorkshire Sculpture Park
takes inspiration from the street action of hanging shoes from a telephone line to mark a space that is occupied by a group of people. BEACON queers this act by using cherry red Dr. Martens boots that are synonymous with lesbian counterculture and wider queer communities. Elevated here to a new height of visibility, they claim this as a queer space. In SHARP’s words: “The Dykes are here”. Codes and symbols used by LGBTQIA+ people to communicate are wide ranging and varied due to historic criminalisation and repression. Examples include Anne Lister’s coded diaries and the Polari language used by gay men. This work celebrates the safety found in clothing, and the small signs we give as part of daily queer life. The number of pairs of boots reflects the duration of Section 28, representing 15 years of lack of visibility and representation.
