15th – 21st August 2018
Workplace Foundation, Gateshead
During this week of the exhibition, artists Jade Sweeting and Janina Sabaliauskaite will bring a collaborative work into the exhibition at Workplace.
The new screenprint, ‘Key Study 1’ marks the start of their new project in response to Hal Fischer’s photographic study Gay Semiotics (1977) and the 1992 documentary Framing Lesbian Fashion by Karen Everett. The duo intend to use a method of analysis of dress codes and visual characteristics within lesbian communities and to explore how these might act as signifiers, that constitute a ‘lesbian semiotics’.
The work is part of the artists’ collaborative practice exploring lesbian culture, initiated with their 2017 exhibition, On Our Backs: An Archive featuring work by Phyllis Christopher.
Jade and Janina invited women who identify as lesbians, to take part in their visual analysis by having their portrait taken alongside informal conversation.