DEVIANT:
WOMEN, SEXUALITY & THE MONSTROUS EROTIC LONDON / BRISTOL
Women’s voices, especially when speaking on sex and erotica, can struggle to find space in everyday discourse. In fact, we often find ourselves spoken of or spoken through our culture in terms of sex, and situated as passive, objectified and silent. Deviant places those voices front and centre, forcing the viewer to confront a multiplicity of desires that unsettle and disrupt the heteronormative and largely patriarchal culture that controls discussions about who enjoys what, how and who with.
In Deviant, the ‘monstrous’ woman who actively lusts, is plural, queer, trans, cyborg, mistress, crone, childfree by choice, and simply often just far too much, bursts out of the frame, ripe and dripping with erotic energy. Drawing on genres spanning horror, science fiction and the fantastic, the dialogue between the art of Juliet Sugg and the poetry of Tracy Heather Johnson is for anyone who celebrates desire in its many and varied forms.
Deviant is the first step in a long-term project to bring marginalised women’s voices into the public sphere, with a specific focus on erotic and sexual experience. The Deviant Collective will launch both a publishing platform and an educational arm to support creatives who may otherwise find it hard to access artistic development for their work.
There first exhibition took place at The Horse Hospital in London and the again at Hours Space Gallery in Bristol in the Autumn 2024. The exhibition is currently touring so please watch this space for more news soon!
