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30 Years of Masculinities by Raewyn Connell: A Book That Changed How We See Gender and Men

There will be a new exhibition opening in Special Collections and Archives on 28 April.

This exhibition marks the 30th anniversary of Masculinities by Raewyn Connell, a seminal work that reshaped the study of gender and masculinity. Since its first edition in 1995 and its second in 2005, Masculinities has profoundly influenced gender studies, academia, and cultural discourse. The book has been translated into 13 languages and continues to be a cornerstone of Men and Masculinities Studies (MMS).

Through a selection of texts, images, and conceptual art, the exhibition traces Masculinities across three decades: 1995, 2005, and 2025. It highlights the book’s impact on MMS, which emerged in the 1980s in England, the USA, Australia, and New Zealand, later expanding globally. Visitors will engage with original editions, critical analyses, and artistic reflections that examine masculinity as a social construct.

Archival materials—including books, articles, and TV interviews—will be presented alongside conceptual art installations, photography, and posters. The exhibition brings to the fore key themes explored in Masculinities, such as hegemonic masculinity, gender hierarchies, and intersections with class, race, and sexuality. Drawing from the book’s rich content, the display engages with topics like the science of masculinity, men’s bodies, the social organization of masculinity, masculinity politics, and historical transformations of masculinity. These themes invite visitors to reflect on how masculinity has been shaped by power, culture, and historical change.

The exhibition encourages interactive engagement, fostering dialogue on masculinity’s societal implications. More than a retrospective, it is an invitation to rethink masculinity through both scholarly and artistic lenses. By celebrating Masculinities, this exhibition reaffirms its lasting significance in global gender discourse, offering a compelling experience for students, researchers, and the public.

Text by exhibition curator, Dr José Loureiro

Curator’s Response: Fragments to Fabric at the Constance Howard Gallery

Ceramic plate made from mosaic fragements

Detail of Round Mosaic, Claire Frampton, 2016

Inspired by broken pottery, Fragments to Fabric takes objects in pieces and transforms them into something whole. Utilising a mix of textile and ceramic works, artist Claire Frampton delves into fragmentation, reimagining the incomplete – creating bold and contemplative artworks. There is a recurring theme of transformation, where the broken becomes whole, drawing inspiration from E. Gillieron’s reproduction of the fresco of the Ladies in Blue, in which burnt and abraded fragments were reimagined into a whole picture.

Ceramic fragments are trapped and suspended in reverse applique net, while goldwork embroidery fills the negative space, echoing the Japanese art of kintsugi. This ancient technique involves repairing broken pottery with gold-infused lacquer, emphasising that the process of breaking and remaking is part of the object’s beauty. Goldwork is a running thread in the exhibition – couched and cross-stitched, tracing a path to the centre of the labyrinth on giant disc-like beads.

Image of a fabric bead from the exhibition

Detail of Oversized Labyrinth Necklace, Claire Frampton, 2023

The exhibition is accompanied by a display of samples from the Goldsmiths Textile Collection, highlighting pieces that spoke to Claire in form or technique. These textiles mirror the ceramic fragments in bound brass on hessian or segmented appliqués, reflecting Frampton’s own practice. This display situates her work within the history of textile production at Goldsmiths, creating a conversation between past and present.

The exhibition is open in the Constance Howard Gallery, Deptford Town Hall, Monday-Friday 1-4pm, until 2 May 2025. More information here.

Ruby Hodgson, Goldsmiths Textiles Collection Curator

Installing Fragments to Fabric in the Constance Howard Gallery

The Fragments to Fabric exhibition showcased my creative work, where I drew inspiration from fragment shapes for hand embroidery designs. With the support of the gallery curator, Ruby Hodgson, and Special Collections and Archives Manager at Goldsmiths Library, Hannah Stageman, the installation of the exhibition took just one day.

Planning and installing the exhibition involved careful thought and attention to detail. I had selected my samples and finished pieces to display, mapping out how they would be arranged. After my exhibition proposal was accepted, I completed a double-sided wall hanging using samples I had produced previously. It was hung in the exhibition to allow visitors to view both sides. A couple of samples, for example a batik sample on silk, also looked good from both sides and these were hung to demonstrate this. I used the gallery’s hanging system, referencing my plans throughout the installation process.

I had designed the exhibition for the gallery after researching venues, as part of coursework for the certificate Hand Embroidery Skill Stage 4, studied for with the School of Stitched Textiles. To develop the concept, I chose 15 samples from the Goldsmiths Textiles Collection that reflected the techniques or design styles in my contemporary work. The display of collection samples was the first part of the exhibition to be installed, in display cabinets which are external to the main gallery, showcasing pieces that complemented each other. Some were pinned to the back of the cabinets, while others rested on glass shelves.

A glass fronted cabinet with white wooden frame, inside, six textiles are pinned to the back. Near the bottom there is a glass shelf with two textiles propped up. The textiles show a mix of colours and techniques.

The display cabinets were installed first. Image taken during install by Claire Frampton.

I wanted to connect my work with the history of textiles at Goldsmiths, making the collection accessible to visitors. More information about the collection can be found under the Goldsmiths Textile Collection and Constance Howard Gallery VADS website.

Inside the main gallery, my work was displayed in roughly chronological order. Showing the development of my design ideas. Five textile samples were placed on a long vitrine, and a further five, along with an A4-sized piece, were suspended with knotted opaque filament, giving the illusion of floating in mid-air. A framed batik piece was also hung using the same technique. Two large textile hangings were mounted on dowels.

A long, thin white table top recedes into the distance, five textile samples are laid on it, they are mostly blue with gold and white embroidery.

Five textile samples on a long vitrine, before the lid is installed. Image taken during install by Claire Frampton.

In addition to textiles, I exhibited two mosaics and a painted plate on gold plate holders, along with a freestanding painted bowl each on a white plinth. The plate and bowl were arranged next to the window, therefore visible to people on street level looking down through the basement windows.

A round ceramic dish painted with geometric shapes that resemble ceramic fragments sits on a small gold stand on a white plinth in front of a window.

Plate arranged next to the window. Image taken during install by Claire Frampton.

An oversized double-sided necklace was arranged on a mannequin in the middle of the gallery. Originally designed to be worn, I had planned to hang it from the gallery rig; however, it was felt that a mannequin would be appropriate.

As a final touch, ceramic fragment pieces were arranged around the edges of the gallery, to give a sense of the design inspiration, and this gave a sense of completion.

It was great to see my work displayed in an exhibition- approximately a year since making the original plans. It’s amazing that gallery visitors can see the pieces in this context, in relationship to each other. Installing the exhibition made my plans a reality, and I didn’t feel the need to make any drastic changes along the way.

For more information about the exhibition and links to book workshops, click here: Fragments to Fabric | Goldsmiths, University of London

Claire Frampton, Artist

Goldsmiths/Lewisham Research Café: LGBTQ+ History Month 2025

Deptford Lounge (9 Giffin Street London SE8 4RJ)

Wednesday, 12th Feb 2025 (12:00 – 13:00 GMT)

Grab a free cup of tea or coffee and join students, staff and the general public to hear about current and recent research at Goldsmiths in a relaxed, friendly environment. The presentations will be followed by an opportunity for questions and discussion.

LGBTQ+ Positive Voices @ Goldsmiths Exhibition

LGBTQ+ Positive Voices @ Goldsmiths was an exhibition hosted at Goldsmiths, University of London Library during May and June 2024. Its content, the positive experiences and representation of LGBTQ+ people, was represented by both original art (artworks, videos, music, games) from more than 20 creators and artists from around the world, and also pieces from Goldsmiths Special Collections and Archives. Exhibition curator Ashleigh Green reflects on the LGBTQ+ histories found within the exhibition.

From Problem Novel to Own Stories: The Evolution of Trans Representation in YA Literature

Dr Emily Corbett is a specialist in children’s and young adult literature in the Goldsmiths Department of Educational Studies. She will share insights from her recent monograph, In Transition: Young Adult Literature and Transgender Representation (2024). Drawing on extensive analysis of published texts from the twenty-first century, she will discuss how specific narrative conventions emerged and evolved, how market forces shaped representation, and what these changes reveal about shifting cultural attitudes toward gender identity. The paper will highlight key turning points in this field’s history and examine the complex interplay between publishing practices and authentic representation.

Key Research Crucial To The Same-Sex Marriage Bill In Greece

Dr Panagiotis Pentaris is based in the Goldsmiths Department of Social, Therapeutic and Community Studies. He played a crucial role in the development of the newly passed same-sex marriage bill in Greece, which was informed by his work surrounding the rights of Greek LGBTQ+ families. Dr Pentaris was the first person to provide data specifically on the lived experiences of LGBTQ+ parents in Greece, and submitted a social policy report to the Greek parliament. Panagiotis is also the scientific lead for Rainbow Families in Greece, supporting LGBTQ+ parents in the public domain.

Book your free ticket here for this event at Deptford Lounge

Positive Action Graduate Traineeship

Sep 24, 2024

“Oh cool! It’s gotta be a nice place to work… quiet…”

“Why are you always so tired when you work in a library?”

“If your job is commonly depicted by anthropomorphised animals in kids’ storybooks then you have a top 10 job and that’s that!”

This are all things friends have said to me about my job at the library. Most think its quaint little occupation, a rather cottage-core-ish endeavour. I admit I had these notions when I first got the job, but that all quickly changed my very first day on the job, when I was briefed on my rotating roster that would involve me learning an entirely new suit of skills every 2 months.

So, what does a librarian do apart from wear cardigans, shelve books and read? Why would one want to work in a library? How does one end up working in a library? Let’s answer these questions one by one.

What does a librarian do?

This is a screenshot of the Reader Services Library Assistant/Positive Action Graduate Trainee portion of my CV.

Disclaimer: this is not what every librarian does, but it is what any librarian Might end up doing. The occupation of librarian is quite multifaceted; the library is a huge machine that requires many specific roles to keep it functioning. I won’t get into the details here though, that’s for you to find out on the job 🙂

That’s the great thing about the traineeship programme really. It gives you a taste of everything that goes on in an academic library.

Why would one want to work in a library?

Working in a library was something I had always wanted to do, but I had never thought much about making it my career. All the way through my undergraduate and masters, I had been aiming to work in a museum setting or archive. However, I had always found myself drawn to libraries, as a space to work, as a concept, as an essential third space for the functioning of society.

It was only through applying for the traineeship that I realised how layered library work was. Sure, there was shelving books and helping students with queries, but there was also managing systems that went on behind the scenes. It was processing about 10 memberships a day, configuring reading lists for professors, cataloguing new acquisitions, handling inter-library loans, assisting the special collections with their accessions. It was learning new software systems, various procedures, essentially experiencing for yourself how an intricate structure like a library could function and what your role in that could be.

This may not be the case for every library, but working at the Goldsmiths library was also a wonderfully pleasant experience due to my colleagues. Everyone was patient, kind, willing to help you out with any query you had. This air of graciousness might be something that comes with the job, as those who chose to work in a library were already customer service minded.

It is also worth mentioning how well libraries intersect with museums and archives. Galleries, libraries, archives and museums all fall under the GLAM sector (cool right?). The skills between these institutions are largely transferable, and with how broadly the traineeship trains you, you end up with resume that would be sought after in many positions. Even if you did not wish to work in libraries, this traineeship would have provided a launching pad for you to apply for many other jobs.

How does one end up working in a library?

Typically, one would have to study Library Studies or Information Science to end up working in a library. The role of librarian is more challenging than most people assume, and there are many intricacies within the job that employers would require someone with an undergraduate or even postgraduate degree in the field to handle.

However, jobs within libraries are being opened to people without such qualifications in an effort to make the occupation more inclusive. This very traineeship is part of such efforts, an initiative to increase diversity within libraries and equip fresh graduates with all the skills they will need to work in most libraries. If one does wish to undertake a postgraduate in Library Studies after working within this role, it would be with the knowledge that the library is indeed a place that suits them.

Conclusion

I hope that answers your questions about what working in a library is like and what working in a library could do for you! It truly is a wonderfully accepting place where you get to meet and help people with furthering their education, researching a special interest, or simply finding a good book to read.

Sophie Tan, Reader Services Library Assistant [Positive Action Graduate Traineeship]

Francis Alÿs: Ricochets at the Barbican – Exploring Creative Commons Licensing for Artists

Jul 26, 2024

After a busy day at the Library coalface, last night I headed to the Francis Alÿs exhibition at the Barbican hoping to switch off from work and enjoy a bit of culture.

Alÿs is a Belgian artist based in Mexico working in a wide range of media, including film, painting, photography, performance and video. The Barbican exhibition focuses on a long-term project over the past two decades led by Alÿs and his team of collaborators that documents children’s play around the world. Since 1999, Alÿs has recorded the lived experience of children at play in different contexts and environments in over 15 countries as part of his Children’s Games video series. Now approaching 50 in number, the Barbican exhibition is the most comprehensive survey of the Children’s Games series to date.

The exhibition opens with Imbu, #30 in the series, a mesmerising film of a crowd of children at dusk in the Democratic Republic of Congo mimicking the sound and movement of a swarm of mosquitoes above them.

At the end of the film credits a Creative Commons logo briefly flashed up. I see this logo at least a hundred times a week as part of my work in the Library at Goldsmiths managing our institutional repository Goldsmiths Research Online (GRO) and supporting and advocating for open access publication. I initially thought that I was getting a flashback to work and was slightly irritated at the fact that I never seem able to completely switch off from my job. But as I watched more of the films of children at play in Nepal, Denmark, Cuba, Mexico, Iraq, Hong Kong, Morocco, Afghanistan and London, the Creative Commons symbol was displayed every time at the end of the credits, and it was clear that Alÿs is using Creative Commons licensing as a crucial element of his practice.

In my role as Open Access Adviser, I help to support practice researchers in the visual and performing to arts to create an effective digital representation of their research on the GRO repository. I know when speaking to practice researchers that defining and protecting intellectual property in practice research is complex and it is an area that many researchers in the performing and visual arts understandably lack confidence in.

As I spent more time at the exhibition, I began to think that exploring Alÿs’s work would be an interesting route into discussing what Creative Commons licences are, how they can work for artists and practice researchers, and how Alÿs and other artists have found Creative Commons licensing to be beneficial to their work.

What are Creative Commons licences?

Creative Commons is a system of licences for digital content. They provide a way for creators to licence the use of material they create and share. Creators retain copyright while allowing others to copy, distribute, and make some uses of their work.

Creators can build a license which suits their needs and authorise the appropriate use of their work. There are six main licences; the more letters in the licence, the more restrictive it is:

CC BY (Attribution Licence): anyone can reuse the work as long as attribution is made to the original creator of the work (i.e. they must cite the original work). This allows maximum dissemination, and it enables all kinds of academic and creative reuse.
CC BY-SA (Share Alike): the work can be reused for all kinds of purposes, but any newly created work must also be shared under the same licence (e.g. you could not create a new work and then issue it under a more open or more restrictive licence).
CC BY-ND (No Derivatives): the work can be reused as is, without modification. This might be useful if the integrity of the original work is important.
CC BY-NC (Non-Commercial): all kinds of reuse are permitted as long as they are for non-commercial purposes.
CC BY-NC-SA (non-commercial, share alike): re-use permitted only for non-commercial purposes; any newly created work must be shared under the same licence.
CC BY-NC-ND: the most restrictive CC licence. It only allows others to freely download and redistribute the work for non-commercial purposes, but not modify or build upon it for any purpose.

Francis Alÿs licences his films CC BY-NC-ND which enables the example below to be shared on this blog. Further examples of Alÿs’s films are available on his website.

Alÿs, F. (2015). ‘Cut’ (CC BY-NC-ND)

The licences allow other people to know how to use a work in an appropriate way without infringing copyright, ensuring creators get the appropriate credit. Creative Commons licences do not replace copyright; they let users of digital works to know what they can and cannot do with that content. It protects the rights of creators, while helping them achieve wide distribution of their work.

Creative Commons licencing underpins the system of open access publication and is now commonly used to licence journal articles, monographs, edited collections, PhD theses and research datasets. Although, the licences can be used for any digital content they are yet to be widely applied to licence work produced by practice researchers in the visual and performing arts.

How do Creative Commons licences work for artists and practice researchers?

Defining and protecting intellectual property rights in practice research can be complex. Practice research is often collaboratively produced and can make use of multimedia documentation which can have particularly complex copyright and licensing implications.

Creative Commons licencing will not be appropriate for every practice research project, but many practice researchers have found that making their work openly available under a Creative Commons licence is the most efficient and ethical route for sharing practice research outputs.

In addition to institutional repositories such as GRO which have been the cornerstone for preserving practice research outputs and making them discoverable, there are many interesting examples of practice researchers making their work available through new open access platforms.

Research Catalogue is a non-commercial, collaboration and publishing platform for artistic research with much of its content made available under a Creative Commons licence. The platform hosts several open access journals that disseminates artistic research, including the Journal for Artistic Research (JAR), Journal of Sonic Studies and HUB — Journal of Research in Art, Design and Society.

Other examples include The Journal of Embodied Research which focuses on the dissemination of embodied knowledge through the medium of video, [in]Transition: Journal of Videographic Film & Moving Studies a peer-reviewed journal of videographic film and moving image studies, Screenworks an open access publication of practice research in film and screen media, PARSE an international artistic research publishing platform, and Screen Worlds: Decolonising Film and Screen Studies, a five-year research project exploring Africans’ contributions to contemporary screen worlds and audiovisual cultures that makes content available under a Creative Commons licence.

Francis Alÿs on Creative Commons licensing

Francis Alÿs has spoken about the benefits that Creative Commons licensing brings to his work:

“I do not in any way want to commercialize the films. We do it because we love it. And for the vanity of the arts. Putting them into the domain of the Creative Commons is a direct, clear statement. Also, before I start filming, I always tell all the people involved that they will be able to download and watch the films, that the films will not be commercialized, and that nobody is making money out of this. This makes the relation much healthier.

His long-time collaborator Rafael Ortega added that:

“When you put something in the domain of the Creative Commons, people make it theirs. This is very interesting for me because it puts me into contact with a lot of people. I meet will all kinds of people who work with children or, for instance, visit refugee camps to help children as part of NGO work. Some of these people have used the Children’s Games as a trigger to talk to children in particular situations. A friend of mine works as a psychiatric researcher and uses Children’s Games with some of the patients to talk about their memories of childhood. The series has become something completely and gloriously uncontrollable.” (Claes, G. and Symons, S. (2023). ‘Interview with Francis Alÿs and Rafael Ortega, Nov. 9 2022’, in Claes, G. and Symons, S. (ed.) Francis Alÿs: The Nature of the Game. Leuven: Leuven University Press, pp.51-52)

Although, Creative Commons licensing will not be appropriate for every practice research project, it is inspiring to see artists engaging with open licensing and speaking so eloquently about the benefits it can bring in widening access to their work and enabling groups and individuals to reuse the films in novel ways.

Further help and support

If you want to find out more about open access, Creative Commons licensing and using GRO you can read our LibGuide.

In the Library, we support practice researchers at Goldsmiths to create an effective digital representation of their research on GRO. If you need help or advice on adding your practice research to GRO or would like to arrange a 1:1 training session you can contact gro@gold.ac.uk.

Pieter Sonke, Online Research Collections

Lily Greenham archives show the Art of Living

Jun 11, 2024

2024, Lily Greenham: An Art of Living, Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe (curated by James Bulley, Andrew Walsh-Lister, Anja Casser & Alex Balgiu) Mar 8 – May 26, 2024

A selection of archives from the Lily Greenham archives held in Goldsmiths Library’s Special Collections and Archives is on display as part of a compelling exhibition presenting the scale of this artist’s life’s work. In a series of exhibition tables photos, ephemera, letters and documents are laid out. Two huge tables installed in space opening at the base of the gallery stairs display visual art thoughts: one holds working colour tests and sketches relating to the ‘light box’ paintings hung nearby and the other spread with fistfuls of small computer drawings. These covered displays feel more like studio work surfaces, and staged as if the artist has just left the room with a gesture indicating that there’s a lot more where this comes from! While on the walls are framed, specially lit and installed paintings we can view Lily is a visual artist, but the space is full of sound work, recorded voices and electronic musicmaking follows the visitor up and down the stairs and through the individually staged rooms. Lily’s life as a performer is revealed through different archives: photos, announcements, playbills and a group shot photograph is blown up, Lily smiling in a world of artistic men. She thrived as a trusted interpreter of composition and poetry while developing as a composer and poet herself. The exhibition is free of ponderous signage – the projector set to display the details of the sound piece we are hearing at one time enhances the way the space is given over to the ephemeral and performative. The only fixed texts printed topping the walls of each room are selected from Lily’s collection ‘aphorisms for contemplation’ printed using a font design based on the metal type set of Lily’s personal typewriter. The exhibition poster features one:

fixed ideas

hamper hinder thwart

understanding

Andrew Lister-Walsh has been cataloguing the collection and as he sorted through the papers brought to Special Collections, these typed notes slipped out of papers, correspondence, reading material. Did she know how much we’d enjoy them decades later? The exhibition organizers have printed some on coloured squares of paper to be taken away by visitors. I refrain from greedily pocketing the lot. Each one is a gem and they have been transformed into something to have and to hold, sprung from the finitude of making up a unique and rare archive.

I read about another show in Germany, in Weimar looking at the relationship of the Bauhaus to National Socialism. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/article/2024/may/06/bauhaus-nazis-collaborators-auschwitz-crematoriium. The article is illustrated by the photograph of a textile sample, annotated as an item from a textile collection telling this story. It was made by a Bauhaus student, Ottie Berger, who was murdered at Auschwitz. Another student Fritz Ertl was the architect who designed the camp’s crematorium. The idea of this textile surviving to tell an overlooked tale of collaboration fostered in avantgarde artistic circles, relates to a folded poster publication donated to the Women’s Art Library collection. It features another group photograph found in the archives of the Austrian Association of Women Artists (VBKÖ) by the research group Secretariat of Ghosts (Nina Hoechtl and Julia Wieger) who published it in 2015. In contrast to the relaxed smiling group of mostly male artists taken in the 1960s telling Lily’s story, here we have a group of 20 women whose conservative dress style denotes 1930s Vienna and all but six are unknown. The organization’s records during and after the rise of National Socialism are lost, presumed destroyed. During that time all Jewish members of the organization were expelled including Louise Fraenkel-Hahn, the VBKÖ’s 3rd president who was a significant benefactor creating a retreat for women artists to work. She is second from the left in the first row. Under the image of the poster publication, the Secretariat of Ghosts superimposed the words ‘EINLADUNG ZUR RECHERCHE’ (Invitation to Research).

Lily Greenham’s life was shaped by exile driven by the Holocaust and the archives held in Goldsmiths are a tantalizing invitation to follow her trajectory that included the best of experimental art scenes, but characterized by a constant moving through. At the symposium Tune in to Reality exploring Lily Greenham’s work, Andrew began his paper on the cataloguing project by citing Greenham’s contribution to the travelling project of the 1970s, The Museum of Drawers: the message, “sorry! lily greenham cannot be pigeon-holed.” https://schubladenmuseum.org/schubladen/19/lily-greenham

The material reflects the artist and resists yielding an airtight story. Alert to the gaps in the archive, Andrew eloquently cited them as ‘triggers to generate attention’ that maintains an awareness of ‘the bigness of life’ present in the archive, where he also feels himself caught up in the imagination of this artist. Andrew’s account of cataloguing Greenham’s archive included ideas like encircling and becoming part of the constellation of people that Lily’s life’s work created. How enlivening his work with this archive is and what a debt is owed to those who miraculously saved it: Hugh Davies, Michael Parsons and Jeffrey Steele. As a member of the audience remarked about working with archives in general: No one was supposed to spend so much time with this stuff! But Lily Greenham’s relationship to her own writings and recordings is a creative force that the archives enable. As Ian Stonehouse remarked in his wonderfully detailed presentation of Lily Greenham’s biography, the exhibition itself was a means of laying out the archive to see and hear what the curators could discover and like a giant jig saw puzzle, witnessing these elements together to make an experience rather than a complete and final picture of her achievement. The curatorial team brought specialist knowledge to bear on the exhibition’s design that gives information but also space to this restless but deeply connected art practice.

James Bulley’s sound installations celebrate Greenham’s compositions and performance work optimising the pieces within the exhibition space in ways never done before, effectively working with the archived material to both animate the recordings and the building’s space. This is why I felt it was so important to make the trip to the Badischer Kunstverein and see how this artist’s archive will continue to unfold. The writing and discussion inspired by the archive generated an excitement that was beautifully expressed by the performative introduction given by Alex Balgiu initiating the symposium. He’d set up a typewriter amongst his personal collection of books and merrily played the keys as if it were a piano, bringing a burst of sound to our grasp of concrete poetry’s relationship to performance and distribution. Greenham’s work is still being recovered alongside the work of other women concrete poets which Balgiu has researched. (It would be great to get a copy of https://bombmagazine.org/articles/2020/11/29/alex-balgiu-and-m%C3%B3nica-de-la-torres-women-in-concrete-poetry-1959-1979/ )

In addition to the production of reprints, Balgiu’s lively interactive website http://lilygreenham.org/ expands on the unpacking of the archive work and sharing in a digital space that again releases the work that is archived along with the life back into a living connection with new readers and listeners. Throughout the symposium, acknowledging insightful new research included recognizing Goldsmiths’ role in not just preserving but championing this project, between the Music Department and Special Collections in the Library. But this exhibition convinces me that something else has ensured that this material was activated, from academic investigation to spellbinding live performances from Valentina Traïanova, Anna Barham and Ute Wassermann we all became a new audience thoroughly caught up and held in the imagination of Lily Greenham.

2024, Tune in to Reality!, symposium, Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe (talks, readings & performances by Valentina Traïanova, Alex Balgiu, Andrew Walsh-Lister, Eva Badura-Triska, Ian Stonehouse, Katrina Liberiou, Judith Milz, Anna Barham & Ute Wassermann)

Publications, Records & Editions:
2024, Lily Greenham: An Art of Living, catalogue / record, Badischer Kunstverein & Bricks from the Kiln
2024, tendentious | neo-semantics, Bricks from the Kiln
2022, Tune in to Reality!, Distance No Object
2007, Lingual Music, CD, Paradigm Discs

Althea Greenan Women’s Art Library, Curator

LGBTQ+ Events During May and June

May 21, 2024

The LGBTQ+ Positive Voices @ Goldsmiths exhibition launched a couple of weeks ago at the Library, and was attended by around 40 people. It was fantastic to be able to celebrate the launch and share the enthusiasm for works in the exhibition with some of the exhibitors, University staff, students and also members of the local LGBTQ+ community in attendance.

We’re running a range of events while the exhibition is on display.

Firstly, there will be a series of short in-person exhibition tours. Tickets available here.

You’ll also have the chance to get creative and get inspired by queer joy and the exhibition in our Queer Joy zine making workshop. Tickets and further information can be found here.

And a more in-depth online virtual tour and introduction for those who can’t make it to the exhibition will be taking place as part of the CILIP LGBTQ+ Network Festival of Pride & Knowledge. You can book your tickets here.

Visitors can also explore the exhibition themselves 9am – 5pm Monday to Friday (tickets for external visitors here) until 20th June 2024.

All are welcome to these free events.

You can find out more about the exhibition here.

LGBTQ+ Positive Voices @ Goldsmiths Exhibition Launches Today

May 7, 2024

Today sees the launch of the inspirational LGBTQ+ Positive Voices @ Goldsmiths exhibition, running from 7th May to 20th June. This showcase celebrates the creativity and resilience of LGBTQ+ individuals through an array of uplifting and thought-provoking art, videos, music, games, and archival materials.

The exhibition is on display throughout the ground floor of Goldsmiths, University of London Library (New Cross, SE14 6NW), including within the Special Collections and Archives rooms.

Contributions come from over 20 talented creators spanning the globe, including Goldsmiths University students. Delving into historical LGBTQ+ culture and history, the exhibition also hosts materials from the Women’s Art Library and Women’s Revolutions Per Minute archives.

Creatives who have contributed to this exhibition include:

Alessandro Paiano – M+E BREATHE (video)
Magnus Thirteen – 陰陽鳳眼 The Yin Yang Peacock (video and photographs)
Ray Abu-Jaber – Beautiful Bodies: Queer Joy & self-love (visual art)
Ray Abu-Jaber and Kassie Fletcher – CRUISING DYSTOPIA (physical game)
Yufeng Wu – Breathe / Causality/Karma (visual art)
Kuch Bhogal – Proud (visual art)
R.E. and S.W. Lee – Walking in My Friend’s High Heels (video)
Leon Clowes – Andrew (music)
AnimaeNoctis – PRIDEPRIDEPRIDE / Liquid Lyrical Liberty (videos)
Rik Versteeg – It’s Liquid (video)
Konrad Natthagel – Sapphic love between goddesses (visual art)
Geoffrey Doig-Marx (GDM) – Gay ICONS (visual art)
Guillermo “Wildo” Zayas IV – Warmest Embrace (visual art)
Linhtropy – when it’s safe again (digital game)
Paty Rodriguez – ADARIM 1997 (video)
Stefani J Alvarez – Transfinity Testament (video)
Terry Gregoraschuk – “Trans4mation” (visual art)
Salome Zhvania – Only Lovers Left Undead (visual art)
Oxford University Press staff & friends – Pride flag (knitted flag)
Various collaborators – Pixel Pride (digital game)

All pieces within the exhibition remain copyright of the creators.

Goldsmiths Special Collections and Archive materials include pieces from:

Del LaGrace Volcano and Jack Halberstam
Annie Sprinkle
Mandy McCartin
Invasorix
Nina Hoechtl
Tessa Boffin
Gay Sweatshop Theatre Company
Ming de Nasty
Flying Lesbians
The Tokens
Berkeley Women’s Music Collective
Lavender Light: The Black and People of All Colors Lesbian and Gay Gospel Choir
Alix Dobkin
Siren
Judy Small

External visitors can book free tickets to view the exhibition here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/lgbtq-positive–voices-goldsmiths-exhibition-tickets-880889372827

There are also tickets still available for the free launch event tomorrow evening (8th May, 6:00 – 8:30pm): https://www.gold.ac.uk/calendar/?id=14968

And we will also be running a free queer joy zine making workshop on 31st May (1:30 – 4:30pm). Free tickets here: https://libcal.gold.ac.uk/event/4207926

On a personal note, it feels like such a long time since I started thinking about this, and discussing it with colleagues in Goldsmiths University. I am so excited that this vibrant and positive exhibition is now launched. And I am extremely grateful for all who chose to contribute their pieces to this exhibition.

Ashleigh Green

LGBTQ+ Positive Voices @ Goldsmiths Exhibition Curator

LGBTQ+ Positive Voices @ Goldsmiths Launches May 2024

Feb 27, 2024

We are very excited to announce that the the LGBTQ+ Positive Voices @ Goldsmiths Exhibition will be launching on 7th May 2024, and will run until 20th June.

The exhibition, which is a celebration of LGBTQ+ lives and positive perspectives, will include original printed art works, video, audio, games, as well as items from the Women’s Art Library and Women’s Revolutions Per Minute collection. The Goldsmiths Special Collections and Archives material, and artistic works from 20+ creatives from around the world that make up the exhibition will be on display on the ground floor of Goldsmiths University Library.

Collage of pieces from the LGBTQ+ Positive Voices @ Goldsmiths exhibition

The creators include:

Alessandro Paiano
Magnus Thirteen
Ray Abu-Jaber
Ray Abu-Jaber and Kassie Fletcher
Yufeng Wu
Kuch Bhogal
R.E. and S.W. Lee
Leon Clowes
AnimaeNoctis
Rik Versteeg
Konrad Natthagel
Geoffrey Doig-Marx (GDM)
Guillermo “Wildo” Zayas IV
Linhtropy
Paty Rodriguez
Stefani J Alvarez
Terry Gregoraschuk
Salome Zhvania

Further details of the project can be found here.

LAUNCH EVENT

A launch event will be held on Wednesday 8th May 2024 (18:00 – 20:30). It will provide visitors with an opportunity to find out more about the project, as well as time to explore the exhibition pieces. Book your free launch event tickets here.

EXHIBITION TICKETS FOR EXTERNAL VISITORS

Visitors who are not members of Goldsmiths University Library can visit the exhibition by booking a free ticket here.

Further showcase events will be hosted during the exhibition in May and June. Details will be published both on the Goldsmiths Library blog and on the LGBTQ+ Positive Voices site.