Hannah Quinlan and Rosie Hastings

How to Survive a Flood @Gaybar at DRAF Studio

12 May–27 May 2016
Roberts Institute of Art

How to Survive a Flood @Gaybar by artists Hannah Quinlan and Rosie Hastings, is a three-week residency in DRAF Studio, a platform that brings together and hosts in residence artists, choreographers, musicians, writers and peer organisations to discuss and develop live work and installation. How to Survive a Flood @Gaybar is also part of DRAF’s ninth edition of the Curators’ Series, Ways of Living by Arcadia Missa (15 April–23 July 2016). The Curators’ Series is a platform to support independent curators, duos and organisations to develop and deliver thematic exhibitions with newly commissioned works. DRAF invited Arcadia Missa, a self-organised space founded in 2011 in Peckham, South East London.

Roberts Institute of Art

Quinlan and Hastings constructed a functioning bar in DRAF Studio, with new video works and audio (produced by Jan Piasecki) together with light boxes looking at the history and present of the legendary New York gay resort, Fire Island.

Since the early 20th century, Fire Island has been a holiday destination and space of freedom for New York’s gay community. However a history of police brutality, AIDS, rapid gentrification and, most recently, hurricane Sandy have complicated the identity of the island. How to Survive a Flood @Gaybar reimagines Fire Island as a queer, sci-fi and anarchic space to critique the relationship between private property, gentrification and the production of a standardised white gay and lesbian subjectivity. An audio work (produced by Jan Piasecki) combines pop music with samples of ecological disasters including hurricanes and melting ice caps. Three videos weave together found footage of Fire Island immediately following Hurricane Sandy, as luxury beach furniture collapses into the ocean. CGI landscapes on large light boxes imagine a surreal and mournful future for the island.

Roberts Institute of Art

In this installation, queer politics and history are remade in the context of a gay bar. The opening party features DJ sets by Nkisi and Summer Faggot Deathwish (Sam Cottington) and Quinlan and Hastings will also put on a second event with artist Paul Maheke performing Knowing less, dance exotic and DJs Butch Traxx (Sydney Baloue) and Summer Faggot Deathwish performing. Cocktails will be served as part of the artists’ bar-performance.

Roberts Institute of Art
Roberts Institute of Art
Roberts Institute of Art

There will be the opportunity to make donations to the Albert Kennedy Foundation, a charity that provides urgent care for homeless LGBTQ youths.

Thanks to Chloe Filiani and Isabel Tennant.

DRAF Curators’ Series and DRAF Studio are supported by Arts Council England and DRAF Galleries Circle.

Hannah Quinlan and Rosie Hastings

Hannah Quinlan and Rosie Hastings are an artist duo living and working in London, best known for their project @Gaybar in which queer politics and history are remade in the context of a gay bar. They had their first joint solo exhibition at Arcadia Missa, London, in early 2015, titled TIFKAS, a virtual fabrication of a queer landscape and experience.

Nkisi

Belgium-raised, London-based producer and DJ Melika Ngombe Kolongo is Nkisi. Her high-octane style fuses various danceable forms, from gabber to doomcore to Central and West African club tracks. She is the co-founder of NON Records, a collective of artists from the African diaspora whose releases are oriented towards loosening gridlocked hegemonies. Nkisi is a regular at London’s Endless club night, and as a producer, she fashions densely layered, obstinate tracks designed to trigger and question collective memories.

Paul Maheke

Paul Maheke is an artist currently living and working in London. His practice focuses — through video, installation, sculpture and furtive interventions — on the body as both an archive and a territory. With particular attention to dance, he proposes to defuse the power relations that shape Western imaginations. Recently, Maheke initiated a series of public conversations at Open School East, Beyond Beyoncé: Use It Like a Bumper!, considering Hip-Hop cultures through the lens of Queer and Black Feminist theory. His solo exhibitions I Lost Track of The Swarm at the South London Gallery and Green Ray Turns Out To Be Mauve at Green Ray are currently on show.

DJ Butch Traxx

DJ Butch Traxx (Sydney Baloue) is a rising star in the London Ballroom Scene and member of the pioneering House of UltraOmni. Her weekly radio show to Brixton plays voguing beats, soulful disco and house.


Curators’ Series 9: Ways of Living

Curated by Arcadia Missa

at DRAF, Camden

Roberts Institute of Art

The Roberts Institute of Art
at Glasgow International

Roberts Institute of Art