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dstrachan · 5 years ago

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'QUEER CONNECTIONS' - Unit Four: The Cornucopia Room,

4 Towerdykeside, TD9 9EA Hawick - 17th May - 22nd May 2019

Billed, in advance, as “A Diverse Art Exhibition by 4 artists who identify as LGBT and live in the Scottish Borders. This event is part of the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival and Mental Health Week. The artists look at the theme connections, what that means to them and how art in a variety of mediums can help to boost and improve mental health. Join us for launch night on Fri 17th at 6-8pm. All welcome, be who you are, a safe and friendly space guaranteed. Be Here! Be Queer!”

This exhibition launched on IDAHOBIT Day 2019: starting in 2014, IDAHOBIT was created to highlight the violence, discrimination and repression experienced by LGBTQ people all over the world. It’s celebrated in over 130 countries, even in some of the places that still criminalise the LGBTQ community. The day was planned to increase awareness and unite people against homophobia, biphobia, intersexism and transphobia. Its aim is to gain the attention of politicians, leaders, media and public, and have our voices and stories heard. Organisations around the world join forces with allies, activists and campaigners to spread the message of acceptance and stand in solidarity with victims of discrimination. I believe that on such days it’s immensely important to acknowledge how lucky we are to live in a more accepting society, but millions of people around the world aren’t so lucky.

Here in the Scottish Borders it was a lovely sunny day so I set off to enjoy a walk: on my way to the start of my walk I stopped off at Kelso High School and Scottish Borders Council HQ which were both flying the LGBT rainbow flag. My stops were deliberate as I had expected to see the flags there and I'll come back to them later, but I was pleasantly surprised and impressed to see a further rainbow flag flying at the entrance to Dryburgh Abbey – well done to Historic Scotland for that. I then went on to enjoy a wonderful walk alongside the River Tweed, but the details of that walk don't need to be included here – my focus is on something else. A few years back I was privileged to be able to present a feature on TD1 Radio marking (if my memory is correct) the 30th anniversary of the Borders Gay Switchboard: it is reassuring to note the apparent progress that has been made since the establishment of that, to now when it would certainly appear to be much be acceptable to live an alternative lifestyle in our area.

Back to IDAHOBIT Day, this year marked the 4th time that Scottish Borders LGBT Equality had been able to have the rainbow flag flown outside the council HQ and be represented inside the entrance area. It had taken quite a fight to be able to get the flag flown but thankfully now that seems to be something that is incorporated into the annual cycle for flag flying. Well done to Susan Hart and her fellow volunteers at Scottish Borders LGBT Equality for their perseverance in establishing that. As last year, Scottish Borders LGBT Equality were joined at the stand by representatives of Rape Crisis. As regards Kelso High School, I contacted Anja Raeburn – the youth worker who had persuaded the school to fly the flag there, and asked her about her feelings about the day; (connections = Anja is an ex-student of mine from Berwickshire High School) .

How easy was it for you to get the school to agree to flying the flag (were there any concerns)? “It was very easy to get the school to agree. They are 100% on board with promoting all LGBT commemorative days. As part of my role as youth worker at Kelso High School I run the 'Equality First' group (pupil led, I just ensure things happen) where we do a lot regarding LGBT Awareness.” How effective do you believe such awareness days as IDAHOBIT to be? “I think it's a great way to get everyone talking about LGBT and ensuring it is no longer a taboo subject, and normalising it as it should be.” Are you aware of the school doing anything else to mark this day? “Yes, as I generally take charge in making sure something is done on commemorative days, we are flying the pride flag and as it is a longer break on a Friday I set up a stall where we give out rainbow ribbons and the young people from 'Equality First' did surveys with other students. It created a huge buzz and everyone was asking about it. I mean, who doesn't want a rainbow ribbon?!” As the years go by do you feel that the situation for LGBT young people in the Borders is changing (for better or worse)? Definitely better! “Slowly .... but better! It's less hate, and more down to lack of understanding. Kelso High has just had teacher training and separate training for all young people who wanted to take part. The young people loved it and really learned something. It was mostly attended by S1's and there were concerns about how serious they would take it, but against all our prejudgments, they were amazing and really got it. It tackled things like what the initials stood for, hate crime and why using 'gay' in a negative way to describe something doesn't actually make sense.”

So back to the main subject of this post, the local art exhibition which opened in Hawick in the evening of IDAHOBIT Day = 'Queer Connections'. I was unable to attend the launch on the Friday evening but did get along first thing on the next day, I was particularly keen to visit, not just because it was supporting causes that I feel strongly about, but I personally know two of the exhibiting artists; in addition as it turned out there were far more 'connections' than just me knowing these two.

Firstly I'll consider those artists known to me; one is another ex-student who used to provide me with regular updates about her beloved local Speedway Team 'Berwick Bandits' which I turned into weekly speedway reports for local community radio. In addition to her love of speedway, Taz McDougall has also developed a passion and skill for photography and she now regularly captures images from inside the oval at the Bandits' meetings. As I expected, there was a photo of a 'rearing' speedway bike alongside a couple of extremely powerful and thought-provoking images. Although I do have a soft spot for the Berwick Bandits speedway team it is a while since I attended a meeting, but to add to the connections there was also a photo of a guitarist to illustrate the importance of music for Taz (clearly another shared passion); the position of the microphone in front of the musician's mouth prevents me from being 100% certain of identification, but I strongly believe that the guitarist is an ex-colleague of mine whose band have featured regularly in my radio shows, and also in a couple of video pieces that I have produced.

Also exhibiting was Hayley McAffee Reid who had a selection of her paintings on display along with one of her sketch books. Haley had first come to my attention along with her, now wife Ainz, when I got in contact with their band Spat, their song 'Robot' was my 'track of the month' in October 2013. One of the beauties of social media, is the ability to be kept informed about a whole range of things, consequently many of Haley's paintings seemed quite familiar as I had previously seen pictures of them as works in progress – really wonderful to see the final results. Also included was collage piece incorporating using kitchen roll, prescription bags and bits of medication information leaflets. When I first saw this I thought there was another connection with another acquaintance, but further checking confirmed that the medication in question was not fluoroquinolone which that acquaintance believes caused disabling and potentially long-lasting or irreversible side effects – its name just started with the same letters.

Now to the remaining two artists, and more connections; although unknown to me I was also impressed by their exhibits. There was the imaginative use of timber by Chris Kent which appealed to the woodworker in me, and in fact has prompted me to 'dig out' a piece of cherry tree that has been lying in wait in my shed until suitable inspiration hit me – I have to say that so far that any inspiration remains little more than a desire to create something! Finally there was Lucinda Ferguson's work which included references to parts of Stirling that I have close connections given that I moved there in the early 1960's and despite living in the Borderlands since 1980, I only disposed of the family home last year. Lucinda's work included pastels and video pieces; the video pieces were particularly poignant as they featured a number of evocative locations; Ferguson Street, South Alloa and also the former British Coal site at Polmaise, which I can remember being driven past in the 1960s whilst it was still operational. Lucinda's obvious fascination with motor vehicles was also the source of another connection given the number of years that I had spent developing 'Motor Vehicle Studies' courses to help educate students about something that would have a fundamental place in their future lives here in the Borderlands. The series of acrylic pieces featuring motor car registration plates and manufacturers' logos was one of these concepts that transforms the everyday and mundane into something much more thoughtful as her 'You Look OK To Me' collection.

So, with such a greatly invested photographer being present on launch night – there is really no point in me trying to cover the range of content when you can check out Taz's album instead.

One final tenuous connection, whilst visiting the local shop for refreshments as I considered the final form of this post I met another ex-student - during our subsequent chat it turned out that he had seen another ex-student’ s car the previous Sunday = #themanfromPARKIE heading off to Italy as part of his Rust2Rome adventure to raise funds for Duns Juniors Football Claub

#idahobit #lgbt #scottish borders lgbt equality #queer connections #cornucopia room #taz mcdougall #hayley mcaffee reid #chris kent #lucinda ferguson #connections #rust2rome #themanfromPARKIE #duns juniors football club

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