Queering Femininity: Thinking Walks and Visual Activisms in Gentrified Soho

The workshop "Queering Femininity: Thinking Walks and Visual Activisms in Gentrified Soho' invites participants of all genders to explore their relationship with femininity while exploring Soho, a neighbourhood grappling with inclusivity amidst hegemonic gentrifications.

The workshop will begin with a discussion of the concept of queering femininity, drawing on the work of feminist and queer theorists. Participants will then explore Soho, a London neighbourhood with a rich history of LGBTQ+ and artistic communities, but which is now undergoing rapid gentrification. As they explore Soho, participants will be asked to consider how femininity is experienced, performed and
represented in the neighbourhood, and how it is changing as a result of gentrification.

Finally, the workshop will engage with the political and aesthetic history of feminist and queer visual activism and will invite participants to create their own posters, in the form of visual activism pieces, and through the media of selfie and urban photography and collage, that challenge the limitations imposed by their urban environment. These pieces will then be returned to the city as urban art, and be shared with the wider community, and they photographed in urban context in order to be displayed in the BET workshop space.

The workshop is sponsored by the Building Environment Trust, and led by Archi for Kids CIC (Antonio Capelao), the Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University (Dimitra Ntzani), and the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, Newcastle University (Stella Mygdali).

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History of the photo:
Blood Group was a performance company whose history in dance captured a particular type of physical and visual theatre. When they invited Jill Posener to photograph their early productions, the photos became a part of their creative process, during which they would take the imagery and build on what they had documented. Doing a photo shoot in Soho, utilizing the fruit and vegetable market and the history of the area as a red light district, allowed them to explore the themes of women's relationships to this area. Families buying food in a vibrant working class neighbourhood during the day, gave way to the sex trade at night as the wooden market barrows moved inside storage sheds revealing the entrances to porn shops and alleyways which seemed to reek of urine and the detrius of the casual exchanges of the night. That contradiction fascinated Jill and the DIRT members and so this photo reflected that tension. Added to that was the fact that the Falklands War was ongoing at that time, and the newspaper headline with its jingoistic tone represented a particular kind of male muscularity, as if it were celebrating a sports event.