Stereo loudspeaker installation

Part of a collaboration with Sarah-Joy Ford. A response to the portraits of John and Jane Marshall held in the collections of the Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery

Commissioned by Arts Council England for Yorkshire Year of the Textile, exhibited at the Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery, Leeds, 2016

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Queer theory draws on the forces of the outsider, the other and the non normative. Using this apparatus of Otherness it is possible to bring to the forefront historical narratives that may have fallen from the canon of history. This collaborative group of works casts aside male-dominated tropes of historical storytelling and looks elsewhere to illuminate unspoken narratives. These works rearrange historical perspectives: rather than acting as a direct response to the portraits of John and Jane Marshall, they dedicate time, effort and a platform to queer histories. Here we shed light on the little-documented relationship between Jane Pollard and Dorothy Wordsworth through a series of intimate and personal letters that paint a picture of a tender and loving relationship between two creative women. This tacet relationship not only provides a radical alternative history to prevalent (masculine) historical narratives, but also acts as a lens through which to view them. The act of reviewing these narratives through from a contemporary queer standpoint opens up new perspectives, allowing us to create new histories and problematise existing ones.