UNDERGROUND

Opening 16 April, A4 Sounds Gallery

“Do you feel that?

That tremor beneath the surface,

A resistance from something buried long ago.

Upside down, mouth full of stones,

Pressure must be applied to steady the earth.”

‘UNDERGROUND’ is a recognition and celebration of existence beneath the surface. Informed by Irish Vampiric Mythologies, this exhibition entangles underground cultures, Queer infrastructures and the quiet, regenerating presence of the vampire. 

Paying homage to Drag as a resilient political power, the exhibition features a performative film set within soil; the living, renewing, connective tissue, humanised and tenderised by processes of decay.  The film is visually led by a viscous green liquid, the source of infection, regeneration and preservation amongst an ecosystem of underground vampires. As this liquid travels it bathes and permeates the soil, flowing around, through and between various vampiric bodies, each in a varying state of preservation, transformation or euphoria. Holding reference to silent film, the work slowly renews, grows and mutates temporally into an ode to Queer Club and Ballroom scenes, the deep and unyielding roots of community, activism and political resistance, collapsing Queer time into a pulsing pool of immortality. 

The exhibition will include a written response by Curator, Writer and Art Historian Ella Litton.

The production of this work has been graciously supported by A4 Sounds, through the WOWTE programme.