Tucked away in the corner of Gloucester Green, currently lies a little pocket of queer modern art. The space is filled with thought-provoking and powerful pieces, that are equal parts beautiful and uncomfortable to see. All of these pieces were made by queer creators, and Spilt Milk makes a point of showcasing this perspective. Much of the artwork explores the nature of queerness, patriarchal oppression, and resistance to social norms. The room is covered with questions of identity.
The multi-media aspect of the exhibition is particularly exciting. There are art pieces hanging above your head as well as below your feet, completely surrounding you. There is an exploration of textiles, photography, paintings, sculpture, performance art, and in the background, lilting live music is playing.
In a world so dominated by cishet men, it feels so special that there is a place in Oxford that chooses to centre queer artists and their creations. As a retaliation against the lack of representation of queer artists, the exhibition is not only beautiful, but radical, and it advocates for the changes needed more widely in the art world.
We spoke to the Director of Spilt Milk, Rachel Prince, to get their perspective on the importance of artistic queer spaces, and why centring marginalised genders is so significant.
So what inspired Spilt Milk?
Rachel: I have to say that the original inspiration for this exhibition did not come from me at all… as much as I would like to take credit, a lot of it goes to Niamh McBratney. In Michaelmas 2022, Niamh started mentioning that she’d love to do some kind of queer exhibition, and the conversations went on from there. This year I think it was Helny Hobbs and Meg Erridge, on the Spilt Milk team, who got me thinking about doing it again. Both years I had to think about it because I was worried about my workload, but I knew that the exhibition would be really cool at the end of it. There is certainly a need for a queer exhibition like this, and it has had such a positive impact on the LGBTQ+ community of Oxford that I knew both times that it would be worth the stress. This is how it’s different from other student exhibitions – it comes out of a desire to make social change.
What is special about Spilt Milk this year?
Rachel: The way that I’ve curated the exhibition this year also gives it another sort of particularity. It’s not just a queer feminist exhibition, where we take every single submission that we get from queer people of a marginalised gender and put them in a room together. I hope that what I’ve done this year begins to wrestle with questions about the history of feminist art that have been floating around in the back of my mind for a while. Although I still have a lot to learn, I’ve been thinking about art which is quickly labelled as ‘feminist’ because it draws attention to or parodies domesticity and ‘women’s work’. For example, , using textiles, knitting or sewing within art can often be seen as a kind of feminist move. I struggle with that because I don’t think that knitting and sewing should be things that belong to women, or that have to be feminine – it feels like we’ve moved on from that – and I like to imagine a world where knitting and sewing are activities inclusive of everyone regardless and seen in a much broader way. I do often find myself automatically using sewing in my own ‘feminist’ artworks anyway! But I feel that this traditional ‘feminist’ work is tied up with ideas of a cis-female centred feminism, concerned mainly with the gender roles present within traditional heterosexual relationships. Considering this topic from a queer perspective makes me want to screw up these categories and the boxes. So when I first had the idea to put a washing line in the middle of the space, I wasn’t sure if it was relevant to a queer feminist exhibition in 2023. That’s when Meg said it could be falling apart or fractured or repurposed or messed up in some way. I always wish that I had more time to think things through, but I hope that I have put enough care and consideration into each element of this exhibition, so that it will feel different from anything you’ve seen before.
What can people expect to see at Spilt Milk?
Rachel: There will be multiple types of art at Spilt Milk! Studying (contemporary) fine art means that I’m always looking to see work in a variety of media so I’ve selected a huge mix of stuff, not all of which will be familiar to everyone. Including work that isn’t just fine art is super important too, because it means that we can provide a platform for more voices and cater towards people’s different interests. Using the media of music and performance makes the event more accessible to those who aren’t interested in fine art, and opens up possibilities for interaction.
Why is it so important to create a ‘queer feminist’ art exhibition?
Rachel: We wanted Spilt Milk to be a ‘queer feminist exhibition’, and so those exhibiting were queer people of marginalised genders. This is the only limit that we put on the exhibition. Feminist doesn’t just mean female. It’s an event for the whole of the LGBTQ+ community (TERFs will not be appreciated here).
I personally see a very strong relationship between feminism and activism for queer rights. The rules of the gender binary and social stereotypes that hold women back also hold queer people back. They come from heteropatriarchy. In my opinion, both forms of activism should be fighting against the assumption that biology defines your identity or behaviour or how you choose to present yourself.
Artwork submissions were only open to people of marginalised genders within the queer community, just because Niamh and I felt that there is an imbalance in the queer scene in Oxford and beyond: that many queer spaces are already dominated by cis men. Cis men are completely welcome at Spilt Milk, but we wanted the exhibition itself to be for artists of marginalised genders, and to encourage lots of people of different genders to come, to try and restore balance to the queer scene and to make a space that feels comfortable for groups of people who might not always feel catered to. It’s important to celebrate diversity, to let go of social boundaries and gender stereotypes to allow people to be and do what they want to.
Spilt Milk will be available to see at Fusion Arts, Gloucester Green from the 8th – 11th of February (12- 6 pm). Donations to Stonewall are encouraged.