Queer Bloomsbury: The Erotic Drawings Cabaret

Fun event at Charleston Farmhouse inviting four queer artists to respond to the collection of over 400 erotic drawings by Duncan Grant which have recently been discovered.

The event started with Darren Clarke, Head of Collections at Charleston, telling us about how the drawings came into the collection and giving an overview of what they include.

Artists and activists, Neil Bartlett, Tanaka Mhishi and Kuchenga then responded to the work in in the form of though provoking essays. I particularly liked Bartlett’s piece which talked about how homosexuality was illegal when the drawings were done and how liberating yet secret that made them.

These talks were broken up by short comic, life drawing sessions by Harry Clayton-Wright, for which we had each been given paper and acrylics to join in. I attach one of my efforts here. I’m not sure some of the other poses would pass the Google Blogger censor. I really enjoyed the exercise and want to do more.

This session was part of a Queer Bloomsbury day but this was the only one which referenced art. The others included “Juno Dawson’s Lovely Trans Literary Salon” in which Dawson interviewed Shon Faye about her new book ‘The Transgender Issue’ and a fun show buy Pecs Drag Kings to round off the evening. 

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