Category: Art Projects

Queer Life Drawing Conversation with artist and model Cazimi in celebration of Trans Pride Hastings and Bexhill

Saturday 22 July, 4 – 5.30 pm at the De La Warr Pavillion, Bexhill on Sea

Life drawing and conversations led by artist Miles Coote. This session will celebrate Trans Pride with model and artist Cazimi, also known as spirit doll. Miles Coote will explore Cazimi’s art practice, and we invite you to draw, pose and join in with the conversation.

Spirit Doll is the artist name of androgynous creature Cazimi. Spirit Doll is a gender expansive artist and performer, who’s practice explores many forms including self portrait photography, drag, pole dance, radical cabaret, drawing, digital art, dolls, clothing and costume. Spirit Doll’s practice focuses on exploration of identity, character creation, pushing boundaries and revealing parts of his inner world.

Book online at www.dlwp.com : Adults, £5 / Free (for Trans, non-binary and gender expansive folk)
Tea and Treats provided

Hastings first official Trans Pride celebration will take place across Hastings, St Leonards and Bexhill between the 22nd and 29th July 2023. The events are for local trans, non-binary and gender expansive folk and their allies and this year’s focus is on community building, support and celebration.

Other events at the DLWP

TRANS PRIDE BADGE MAKING

Led by artist Harry McMorrow
FREE, Drop-in, Main Foyer
Saturday 22 July, 3 – 4 pm

Come and try your hand at making your own badge! You can draw a flag, write your pronouns, slogans, cartoons- get creative!  Badge design templates will be provided but feel free to bring any images or materials you’d specifically like to use.

Previous Queer LDC events at DLWP:

Life drawing and conversations led by artist Miles Coote. Three sessions focusing on three different themes with different sitters; Horticulture, the environment and queer cooperatives, Queer identities surrounding sex and sexual health, and a focus on the art of Angelo Madsen Minax and Miles Coote.

More information about queer life drawing conversation

The exhibition will be open at Paul Smith Beak Street from 30June – 28 August 2023.

“This year, to mark Pride 2023, we’ve worked with four incredible artists – Fiona Quadri, Megan Elliott, Queen Josephine, and Miles Coote – to create original pieces for a special exhibition at our Beak Street shop in London’s Soho opening just in time for the city’s incredible Pride parade.”

As much as we often see Pride as a period of celebration, our thoughts around this time of year often turn to reflection – and that’s just one of the reasons we partner with MindOut, the Brighton-based LGBTQ+ charity dedicated to lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer mental health through their listening service and beyond. And this year, to mark Pride 2023, it was important to us to showcase the voices of people from the community, through the medium they know best: their art. We’ve worked with four incredible artists – Fiona Quadri, Megan Elliott, Queen Josephine, and Miles Coote – to create original pieces for a special exhibition at our Beak Street shop in London’s Soho opening just in time for the city’s incredible Pride parade.

50% of the purchase price from the sale of each work will be donated to MindOut* while the artists will receive the other 50%. In addition, we will also donate 50% of the proceeds from all PS Paul Smith Happy sales made in the UK, US, France online and in store between 30 June – 6 July 2023 to MindOut. Read more about the artists, their thoughts on Pride and what they’re trying to say with their work below.

Miles Coote

What does Pride mean to you?

Pride is a political day of celebration for LGBTQIA+ identifying people. It is a moment for me to celebrate my identity and relationship with my partner who I love.

How does Pride manifest itself in your work in the exhibition?

In my artwork I create a representation of gender and sexuality through Queer Life Drawing and Painting. My Paintings explore the visual language of contemporary art made by LGBTQIA+ artists, with a focus on queer auto ethnography as a method of storytelling and semi fiction.

What does mental health mean to you?

My mental health and resilience is extremely important in my day to day practice and can challenge the artworks I make and the ability to make them. It can be affected by the agency I feel I have to make a change in my life and social change in society. By developing the Queer Life Drawing Conversation project and working with people who have faced prejudice or discrimination because of their gender, sexuality, and race and disability, has helped me and others to come together and empower our experiences, knowledge, and mental health.

How does Pride affect your mental health?

Going to Pride and walking in the march was a really exciting experience. I marched with my partner in the Out to Swim team and we all wore our swimming costumes and trainers – revealing our queer bodies. It was a time to be political and socialise with new people and make new friends.

Why did you become an artist?

The career I chose was based on my experiences of drawing and painting. I can remember sitting at a table and drawing the human figure from memory when I was 3 to 4 years old. Art making has been an intimate way of communicating and also learning about my gender and sexuality.

What are you trying to say with your work?

My artwork is queer. It exists as Queer Art.

Queer Life Drawing events hosted on alternate Tuesdays, hosted at Brief Encounter Cafe, Bexhill on Sea.

About the Event:

A durational performance workshop exploring the hybridity of life drawing and cafes. This event is inspired by Queer life drawing conversations and Jurgen Habermas’s writings on coffee houses and the public sphere.

The event will run as hybrid event, online on Zoom and live from Brief Encounter Cafe, Sivyers, Bexhill-on-Sea (East Sussex, UK). Miles will host the event. You are welcome to draw, take part posing and workshopping a live art performance. Three sheets of A2 Cartridge Paper and drawing materials will be provided for participants attending at the venue, with an extra cost for additional paper. Participants may bring their own drawing materials, props and garments (suitable for life drawing).

A fantastic selection of cakes and beverages available at Brief Encounter Cafe

If you are attending the event online on zoom please have your own drawing materials ready and select the online event.

This event contains nudity. You must be eighteen or above to attend.

Queer Life Drawing events: Saturday 25 March 2023 –
Saturday 13 May 2023

Please note: These events are for ages 18+

Queer life drawing and conversations led by artist Miles Coote. Three sessions focusing on three different themes with different sitters; Horticulture, the environment and queer cooperatives, Queer identities surrounding sex and sexual health, and a focus on the art of Angelo Madsen Minax and Miles Coote.

25th March

A focus on the art of Angelo Madsen Minax and Miles Coote

An online Zoom session and hybrid event in conversation with Angelo Madsdn Minax and Miles Coote. This is a queer intervention of the format of Angelo’s current exhibition at the De La Warr Pavilion, which will aim to intimately explore both artists’ practices through queer life drawing and conversations.

29 April

Queer identities surrounding sex and sexual health and the Bareback Museum

In 2020 PrEP (Pre-exposure prophylaxis antiviral) was made available for free by the NHS to prevent the infection of HIV.  This session will focus on conversations about sexual health scripts within the LGBTQIA+ community since the introduction of PrEP and will invite Anthony Gifford ( PhD candidate and retired dancer) to model for this session and to discuss his research on the psychosocial influences on the decision to take PrEP. We hope to broaden the conversation towards the queering identities of unprotected sex and queer methods interacting in social science on embodiment theory and the nude interview as a qualitative research practice.

13 May

Horticulture, the environment and queer cooperatives

The final session will explore environmental activism in relation to queer bodies, exploring a conversation about embodiment as a methodology for environmental change: drawing on histories of queer organising, queer cooperatives and connections with the environment and horticulture. We are thrilled to have Councillor Claire Carr of the Green Party to model for this session.

Queer Life Drawing Conversation hosted by LGBT Foundation: Tuesday, 7th March 2023, 19:00 – 21:00 GMT, Online

A Queer Life Drawing Conversation led online on Zoom by Miles Coote and Lucie Russell, hosted by LGBT Foundation’s Sexual Health Team with a life model. The theme of this session will focus on women’s sexual health awareness in relation to visual arts practices. You are welcome to join in drawing, posing and contributing to the conversation.

This event is suitable for ages 18+ and contains nudity.

Please have your materials ready – pencil, pens, paper, anything you can draw with. Beginners welcome and encouraged!

Queer Life Drawing Conversation is a project led by Miles Coote which developed during the pandemic as a way to explore queer bodies and conversations. Lucie Russell is a PhD candidate at University of the Arts London and leads life drawing and community arts workshops, Drawing People Together

Catherine Hoffmann will be life modelling for this event. Catherine is a Live artist based in Folkestone, who attempts to address aspects of contemporary life looking at class, healing, mental health & feminism. Her work sits in the intersection between performance, absurd humour and music. She creates interactive work, cabaret as well as staged pieces for theatres, art centres, festivals, galleries, club settings and varied sites in the UK and abroad. DIY song making and music is a big part of her practice.

Sugar & Spice is a chance for LGBTQ+ women to come together, learn, and celebrate themselves and each other, with a host of free events. Delivered by LGBT Foundation’s Women’s Programme, with support from our Sexual Health team.

This event is open to all, but please be aware Sugar & Spice is centred around LGBTQ+ women.

Our events are for those aged 18+.

By attending any of our events you agree to adhere to our Safer Spaces Policy.

Online events take place over Zoom and live captioning will be made available.

Access requirements or questions? Email women@lgbt.foundation