Associated Events Programme: Everyone Involved by Ian Giles
Posted: 15/08/2024
We’re pleased to announce a compelling new event programme for August to October 2024, as part of Ian Giles contemporary commission ‘Everyone Involved’.
Ian enlivens queer archives by collaborating with LGBTQIA+ pioneers to amplify their achievements and legacies. His films and performances grow out of embedded relationships, first hand research and a multidisciplinary studio practice.
Read more about the artist HERE.
Everyone Involved is an immersive installation and film by London based artist Ian Giles featuring A Gay Song, which is heralded as the first LGBTQ+ protest song recorded onto vinyl in 1972. Ian has reformed the original band to re-record the song 52 years after its inception. This act of reunion is a cross generational gesture of thanks and also an example of the living legacy of the gay liberation movement in the UK.
The exhibition will be LIVE from Friday 23rd August to Sunday 27th October alongside a contextual heritage exhibition called Southampton’s Queer Stories.
Associated Events:
ZEST Placard Making Workshop:
Saturday 24th August, 9 AM – 11 AM
Join us as we begin the celebrations for Southampton Pride 2024. Drop in to get ready for the march, grab a coffee and design your own pride placard before heading over to Queen’s Park for the #SOProud march. You’ll be met by artists from ZEST Arts Collective who will have all the materials you need to make your own custom placard or banner for the march. Plenty of materials will be provided but feel free to bring or donate your own for the other makers.
Book your free ticket HERE.
FLARB (Free, Lazy, Arty, Radical Bookclub): Saturday 14th September, 2 PM – 4 PM
FLARB is a ZEST Arts Collective initiative run by ZEST co-director and artist Ellen Gillett. For this special series of FLARB events at GHT, Ellen will facilitate a fun, informal conversation around our new contemporary art commission Everyone Involved by Ian Giles. An extract from the accompanying critical writing commission, by author of Gay Bar (a New York Times Top Book of 2021) Jeremy Atherton Lin, will provide stimulus for discussion – served with a side of coffee and cake.
Find out more about the FLARB workshop HERE.
Drop-in Family Workshop – Paint Your Own Banner:
Saturday 21st September, 2 – 4pm
In partnership with Southampton City Council, we’re hosting a family friendly drop-in creative workshop! Using acrylic paint, retro fabrics and stencil slogans we will paint and construct our own fabric banners that celebrate LGBTQIA+ people and their stories in Southampton.
This workshop is a chance for kids and their adults to get creative by responding to God’s House Tower’s exhibitions, Everyone Involved by Ian Giles and Southampton’s Queer Stories.
All materials (as well as guidance) will be provided.
Find out more and book your space HERE.
GHT Creative Writing Workshop:
Saturday, 12th October, 2 PM – 4:30 PM
The GHT Creative Writing Group returns for Ian Giles’ new commission. Led by Susmita Bhattacharya, the GHT Creative Writing Group offers a series of free writing workshops using our contemporary art programme as the stimulus for creativity. For this workshop, Susmita will be exploring different forms of flash fiction. Beginners welcome!
You can sign up for the workshop HERE.
Artist Voices In-Conversation with Ian Giles and Jen Fernie (Online):
Thursday 24th October, 6:30 PM – 8 PM
Artist Voices is a series of panel discussions and conversations that aim to support artist development by unpacking and demystifying key topics and issues of the visual arts ecology through discussion with artists and cultural workers.
Join artist Ian Giles and curator and writer Jes Fernie to discuss our upcoming exhibition at God’s House Tower.
Artist Voices will be hosted on Zoom. Details of how to join will be shared in the days leading up to the event via Eventbrite.
Book your free ticket on Eventbrite HERE.
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More information about Everyone Involved:
The song at the centre of the film speaks of self-love and celebrates being gay as part of nature’s natural diversity. It was recorded only 5 years after the partial decriminalisation of sex between men was passed in England in 1967. It encapsulates the spirit of the early gay rights movement which promoted the mantra that ‘Gay is Good’ in counterbalance to centuries of oppression.
The song was written by Alan Wakeman and Michael Klein and was originally performed in Soho in a studio used to record foreign language teaching tools. A Gay Song formed part of an album made by Everyone Involved which included environmental and human rights songs. 1000 copies of the album were then given out for free and some were buried in a time capsule in Brazil.
Ian chose to work with the song for his Southampton commission as it nods to the ethos of the 1976 conference for the Campaign for Homosexual Equality that was held at Southampton’s Guildhall and the Polygon Hotel. A special train was chartered from Waterloo to allow delegates to attend this landmark gathering.
The film of the band’s 2024 performance at RAK Studios is shown alongside monumental wall hangings made by the artist from vintage fabrics and found textiles. Ian has hand painted archival cartoons on to the fabrics which highlight the joyful creativity of the gay rights movement. A carpeted conversation pit offers a communal space for viewers to sit together to watch the film and will be a space for the workshops and gatherings throughout the exhibition.
Following its exhibition at GHT, the work will enter the collection of Southampton City Art Gallery to help further preserve this important piece of LGBTQIA+ creativity.
This commission would not have been possible without the invaluable support and funding of Arts Council England, ArtFund, Friends of Southampton’s Museums, Archives and Galleries (FoSMAG) and the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF).