Unlimited Intimacy: New group exhibition frames the 1980s and 1990s as a politically charged time for LGBTQ+ histories and movements

Lead Pic: Stuart Linden Rhodes, Wolverhampton, The Deep, 1993, digital photograph

Borrowing its title from the 2009 book by Tim Dean, Unlimited Intimacy is a new group exhibition that frames the 1980s and 1990s as a politically charged time for LGBTQ+ histories and movements. The presentation surveys critical and radical perspectives on gay and queer sexuality through photographic and documentary practices.

L: Tessa Boffin, The Knight, 1990/2023, archival inkjet print, 106.7×38.8cm, edition of 8 plus 2 artist’s proofs. Courtesy: the Estate of Tessa Boffin and the Gupta+Singh Archive.
R: Tessa Boffin, The Lady-in-Waiting, 1990/2023, archival inkjet print, 106.7x39cm, edition of 8 plus 2 artist’s proofs. Courtesy: the Estate of Tessa Boffin and the Gupta+Singh Archive.

The Knight’s Move by Tessa Boffin (1960 – 1993) unapologetically challenges heteronormative representations of historical and mythological figures. The monochromatic works reimagine the Knight, the Knave, the Angel, the Casanova and the Lady-in-Waiting as lesbian protagonists.

Phyllis Christopher presents an intimate and evocative exploration of female sexuality, sensually depicting skin and bodily fluids. The photographs compel viewers to confront the interlaced relationship between sexual desire, pleasure, and pain.

Sunil Gupta, Towards an Indian Gay Image – Saleem and me, 1983, archival inkjet print, 71×106.6cm

Cruising Delhi in the 80s by Sunil Gupta in conversation with the Indian art historian and gay rights activist Saleem Kidwai (1951 – 2021) is a reflective video work on their shared histories of cruising in Delhi, India.

Stuart Linden Rhodes captures the diverse gay scene and queer club culture of the UK in the 1990s, a period also marked by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, homophobia, and discriminatory laws.

Charan Singh, Still from They Called it Love, But Was it Love?, 2020, film, duration 8.35mins. Courtesy: the artist and sepiaEYE. Commissioned by Visual AIDS / Day Without Art.

In They Called it Love, But Was it Love?, Charan Singh examines the lives and worlds of the Kothi community, which is often targeted as a ‘risk group’ in India and troubles hetero- and homo-normative notions of gender and sexuality through a non-western lens.

Curator Abdullah Qureshi is a Pakistan-born multidisciplinary artist and curator. He is a Lecturer in Fine Art at Northumbria University in Newcastle upon Tyne.

The exhibition is part of Assemblage I: Body and Politics, hosted by the Department of Art at Northumbria University.

Unlimited Intimacy is showing from October 26 – November 18 at Vane, Orbis Community, 65 High Street, Gateshead, NE8 2AP. For more info, CLICK HERE