05 November 2013

Text Submissions for AS WE ARE

I'm very excited to have been chosen to exhibit As We Are at the Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Warf in London's South Bank at the end of this month! Go check out the other awesome artists too. The show runs from November 28th to December 1st.



As part of the show in London, I am creating a publication that gives more people the chance to submit their stories, and this is where I need YOU! The original project showed handwritten statements written by the participants in conjunction with their own portraits. I am aware that not everyone is in a position where appearing in a photo and revealing their true identities is possible or even safe, which is why I want to extend the reach of this project to include those of us with limited chances to express themselves. With enough submissions, the final outcome would hopefully be a colourful, diverse and authentic look at the different kinds of lives and loves of the LGBT community in Scotland, coming right from the people, for the people.

Submissions would ideally be sent through post, or scanned and emailed if in a pinch. The only parameter for the piece is that it is a maximum of A4 in size and handwritten by you (or by someone you trust/on a computer if writing by hand is very difficult for you). The text can be anything you want to say - you can read some of the examples of others' statements in the original post. 'Identity' and 'who you are' may or may not actually be related to being LGBT - who are you as a person really, what defines you, what do you want to tell the world about yourself? Identity can be things like student, sister, football player, where you are from, what you want to be in the future, woman/man/neither/both... If you feel like a certain LGBT identity is something that is a big part of who you are, like being gay, or bi, or generally queer, or trans* etc, you can write about that - but if you don't feel like its something you want to explicitly discuss, or don't know how to define yourself, then that is completely ok too. Everyone is different! You could also share a memory, philosophy, story or even a drawing you feel is a reflection of yourself.

Here are some general questions to help you get inspired. 
- What is your career at the moment / what is the career you are studying or working towards, or dream of having?
- Have you ever been in love, or are you in love right now? 
- What makes, or has made, you proud of yourself?
 - What would you like to say to someone still too afraid to come out and be who they are? 
- Is there something keeping you from being able to publicly be yourself? 
- What is the most beautiful thing in your world?

The submissions can be anonymous if you wish, and I will only disclose your name if you say its ok. It would be great if you gave a geographic location (this could also be quite broad, like 'Northern Scotland') to create an idea of how our community is dispersed around the country. 

 The texts can be sent to: Tiu Makkonen, 6/12 Dalgety Road, Edinburgh EH7 5UJ
 or scanned (at maximum resolution please) and emailed to tiu.makkonen@gmail.com. 

 If you have any questions please don't hesitate to pop me a message! Here's to letting our voices be heard. I'm looking forward to chronicling our great community! Tiu x





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