All Weekend
During fair opening hours
International Library of Fashion Research presents: Queering Room
co-curated with Molly Maltman
On the occasion of Bound Art Book Fair 2023, the International Library of Fashion Research is pleased to present the second iteration of Queering Room, co-curated with Molly Maltman. Queering Room takes as a point of departure the Library’s 2022 exhibition Queering Fashion, realised in collaboration with the National Museum of Norway and Printed Matter Inc., and is a project that will continue to be kept current and alive through new engagements. Queering Room at Bound Art Book Fair therefore represents an updated selection of the Library’s expanding collection of queer publications and histories across fashion. As much a space for conversation as it is for reading, Queering Room offers an opportunity to access this collection of publications, books and zines—both historical and contemporary—that explore the representation of queerness in fashion and in doing so, opens up a space for dialogue. This activation becomes a way to remember that we—librarians, archivists, publishers, fashion practitioners, researchers, but also fashion enthusiasts—are responsible for the writing of future histories of fashion: multifaceted, diversified, heterogeneous and independent.
@fashionresearchlibrary / fashionresearchlibrary.com / @mollyemmaaa
—
Friday
6.00-8.00pm
Village presents: This Faulty Armour
an exhibition by Christopher Shannon
Village Books, Oldham Street, M4 1LN
Village Manchester presents a special off-site exhibition with visual artist and former fashion designer Christopher Shannon. Stuff that was once discarded or forgotten, crammed in a junk drawer or dropped on roads leading to piers and warehouses, now imbued with intent: these are the materials used by Shannon in This Faulty Armour. As with Shannon’s fashion designs, the quotidian becomes a rich source of inspiration, layered with ideas and word play to create a dreamlike meditation on what becomes of that which is no longer wanted. Its distinct Northern aesthetic–things trying to be the best they can, yet fraying at the edges–reflects both an attitude of defiance and a hope for order. <<I want to be whole but I’m falling apart. I want to be frank yet I don’t want to care. I want to feel but I don’t want to be touched.>> These are the innate contradictions at the heart of Shannon’s textile collages.
Join us for an opening preview of the exhibition from 6.00-8.00pm, followed by drinks at 𝑶! 𝑷𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒆 𝑫𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒚𝒆𝒅
villagebooks.co / @villagebooks.co / @ad_england
Saturday
11.30am-12.30pm
A Queer Archive of the North: artist talk with Stuart Linden Rhodes
Gallery 4
Stuart Linden Rhodes, a retired Senior Lecturer from Leeds Beckett University, established the Instagram account @Linden_Archives during the lockdowns of 2020-21, scanning and digitising hundreds of reportage photographs shot for All Points North and Gay Times magazines during the 1990s. These images had been unseen for thirty years, and the archive has since gained a substantial following. The first edition of the photo book Out & About with Linden: A Queer Archive of the North, was a selected study of the pub and club scene from Birmingham to Newcastle, with contributions from Boy George, Julian Clary, Mel B, Paul O’Grady, Su Pollard and more. Initially published by filmmaker Joe Ingham in 2022, a second edition was published in 2023 by PARIAH PRESS. This artist talk explores the brash, thriving and diverse gay scene and queer club culture in the UK in the 1990s, a period also marked by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, homophobia, and discriminatory laws.
@Linden_Archives / pariahpress.com
—
12.00-2.00pm
Jason Evans: Happy Accidents
Office of Arte Útil
In this new workshop photographer Jason Evans will share a range of home grown concepts and hacks that he has employed in his fashion, portrait and music photography. The workshop will focus on freeing up and letting go, collaborative creativity, improvisation, the power of limits and the usefulness of accidents. The session is for anyone with an interest in harnessing their creativity. No prior photographic experience required, but a camera or phone is useful.
The 2 hour session is first come, first served and will be repeated on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.
@jasonevansfoto / thedailynice.com
—
12.45-1.45pm
Sports Banger’s Lifestyles of the Poor, Rich and Famous: Jonny Banger in conversation with Luke Leitch
Gallery 4
Sports Banger is a genre-defying, boundary-breaking fashion collective run by Jonny Banger, who interrogates British pop culture, fashion, class and politics through the subversion and (mis)appropriation of branding. The new book Sports Banger: Lifestyles of the Poor, Rich and Famous, out now from Thames & Hudson, tells the story of the first ten years of the irreverent brand, from its foundation in 2013 to the present day. It charts the rise of the brand from an underground bootlegging operation to an all-inclusive, internationally recognised DIY fashion house, record label and socially conscious satirist in the mould of a modern-day Hogarth. In a layout created by the Sports Banger studio, the book’s images reflect the anarchic story: photographs of studio ephemera, couture pieces, community projects, protests and fashion shows feature alongside one off pieces produced for Skepta, 2 Chainz, Samantha Morton, David Hoyle and more. The book contains a full t-shirt archive of iconic Sports Banger bootleg t-shirts, and is considered an of-our-times hybrid of political comment, DIY fashion and proud class consciousness. For this launch event, Jonny Banger will be in conversation with writer and Vogue contributor Luke Leitch.
sportsbanger.com / @sportsbanger / @luke_leitch
—
2.00-3.00pm
(Un)Defining Queer: Dominic Bilton in conversation with Cheddar Gorgeous + Sarah-Joy Ford
Gallery 4
Discussing how their artforms are changing the dominant narratives within queer art history, drag legend Cheddar Gorgeous and Lesbian textile artist Sarah-Joy Ford will sit down with Dominic Bilton, Whitworth project producer and co-curator of the (Un)Defining Queer exhibition, to each discuss their practice. Cheddar Gorgeous’s UK Drag Race outfit Pink Triangle: Silence=Death is currently on display in the (Un)Defining Queer exhibition along with Sarah-Joy Ford’s Chain Reactions ‘Dyke’ quilt. The event will also celebrate the launch of the book (Un)Defining Queer: Queering the Constituent Museum, and books will be signed after the talk.
Dominic Bilton will also lead a free curator’s tour of the (Un)Defining Queer exhibition from 12:30pm - 1:30pm on Sunday 26th November. Meet in the Whitworth Art Gallery Oxford Road entrance foyer.
@dominicjamesbilton / @cheddar_gorgeous / @sarahjoy.ford / @queeringthewhitworth
—
3.15-4.15pm
Viscose Presents: Publishing Trans Fashion with Alex Nora Esculapio
Gallery 4
How can we approach trans fashion histories in independent publishing? How do we tell these stories in ways that do justice to different historical, social, and cultural contexts and also inform contemporary discourses and practices? In this talk, Alex Nora Esculapio will aim to answer these two questions by exploring the editorial and creative process behind the production of issue four of Viscose journal, which is dedicated to the theme of transness and fashion. The talk will mobilise notions of the archive and the archival to discuss some of the possibilities they offer for both creative and scholarly engagement.
Alex Nora Esculapio is a writer, researcher and lecturer in Historical and Critical Studies at University of Brighton. Her work has been published in Vestoj, Fashion Projects, Viscose as well as in academic journals like Fashion Theory, Critical Studies in Fashion and Beauty and Craft Research.
@viscose_journal
Sunday
11.30am-12.30pm
Do Your Own Thing: Richard Phoenix & Venture Arts
Grand Hall
In this open and discursive event, Venture Arts artists will be in conversation with writer and artist Richard Phoenix and Katherine Long (Artistic Manager, Venture Arts) about their work, creative support and what inspires them, from superheroes to weightlifting. Richard Phoenix is an artist working in London and the South East whose practice involves painting, drawing, writing, music and learning about how these things support people to be together. His work of non-fiction 'Do Your Own Thing’ (Rough Trade Books, 2023) details his experiences of the best underground arts scene you’ve never heard of—Do Your Own Thing, a project run by learning disability arts organisation Heart n Soul. Looking at the transformative potential of working to support creative young people make the music and art they want to, this book contributes essential new voices, reflections and considerations to the established ideas of ‘Do It Yourself’ culture. Venture Arts is an award-winning Manchester-based visual arts organisation working with learning disabled artists. Through their studio programmes, exhibitions and collaborative projects, they remove barriers to the arts, championing neurodiversity and providing pathways for every individual to develop their creative identity. Zines by Venture Arts artists will be available to purchase at the fair.
venturearts.org / richardphoenix.com / @venturearts_ / @richardjphoenix
—
12.00-1.00pm
Archiving Jamaica in Fashion: Workshop and live scanning with Amber Pinkerton
Gallery 4
Can you help build a new archive surveying the many representations of Jamaica in fashion? JA Editorial Archive is a photographic archive/library of editorial material shot in the island of Jamaica. The archive is founded and managed by Jamaican photographic artist Amber Pinkerton. It contains full, scanned spreads from fashion and art magazines, with the intent of encouraging new photographic imaginations for Jamaican visual artists. With attention to the medium of photography, the archive is focused on providing access and full context around series photographed in Jamaica, by local and international photographers. This archive pertains to published print material only, examining and exploring the context of the page. Its use is encouraged for educational, leisurely and critical purposes. At Bound Art Book Fair, the JA Editorial Archive welcomes you to engage in a calming and leisurely space where one can sit and self-immerse in physical copies from the archive, whilst surrounded by a soundscape and flickering, moving images by founder Amber Pinkerton.
We also invite you to contribute to the archive by bringing any relevant print material to be scanned/digitised.
jaeditorialarchive.com / @jaeditorialarchive / @ambercashmere
—
12.30-1.30pm
(Un)Defining Queer Exhibition Tour
Oxford Road entrance
Curator Dominic Bilton will lead a free tour of the (Un)Defining Queer exhibition sharing insights and strategies for the project. Meet in the Whitworth Art Gallery Oxford Road entrance foyer.
@dominicjamesbilton / @queeringthewhitworth
—
1.00-3.00pm
Jason Evans: Happy Accidents
Office of Arte Útil
In this new workshop photographer Jason Evans will share a range of home grown concepts and hacks that he has employed in his fashion, portrait and music photography. The workshop will focus on freeing up and letting go, collaborative creativity, improvisation, the power of limits and the usefulness of accidents. The session is for anyone with an interest in harnessing their creativity. No prior photographic experience required, but a camera or phone is useful.
The 2 hour session is first come, first served and will be repeated on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.
@jasonevansfoto / thedailynice.com
—
1.30-2.30pm
Sunil Gupta: Queer Radicalism, Archives and Publishing
Gallery 4
Born in Delhi in 1953, Sunil Gupta’s life and career has traced a path to Montreal, New York and now London. In this artist talk he will reflect on over four decades of involvement with photography and its relationship to lesbian and gay rights and racial equality across Canada, the US, UK and India. He will discuss how reappraising his archives has led to a series of publications in more recent years with Stanley/Barker, Autograph and Aperture, and his long-standing work at the centre of grassroots queer and postcolonial organising.
@sunilgupta7402 / @stanleybarkerbooks / www.stanleybarker.co.uk
—
3.00-4.00pm
Jesse Glazzard: Photography and Queer Time
Gallery 4
Jesse Glazzard is a photographer and director born in West Yorkshire, whose documentary and portraiture work explores gender, sexuality, transformation, class and loss. In this artist talk he will reflect on the notion of queer time as a non-linear chronology in which tenses collapse and identities shift. He will use over a decade of photographic self-documentary, including from his ongoing series Testo Diary in which he records the physical transformation of his body throughout transition, as a means to consider queer and trans temporalities and repudiate the traditional milestones of straight time. The talk will also argue for a queering of the pace of contemporary life and the extent to which it is bound up in notions of productivity and success; a slower process that feels intimately connected to the transitioning body.
@jesse_glazzard
