Bareback Museum: Life Drawing Performance Workshop on Intimacy and Sexual Health

UCL Urban Laboratory and the UCL Institute of Advanced Studies invite you to join us for a performative life drawing workshop to think collectively (and in new ways) about institutions, bodies and unprotected sex.

The Bareback Museum is an informative life drawing performance workshop which explores the roles of exhibitionism, sexual health and intimacy. An agency is created about unprotected sex using queer methodologies, live art performance and the notion of a life drawing class. It subverts cleansed and sanitised spaces and creates transparency to discuss 'Bareback' sex (men who have unprotected sex with men) in institutions where there is taboo and stigmatisation. Conversations such as unprotected sex, use of grindr, PEP/ PrEP, the changing perspectives about unprotected sex from Bareback communities and groups with their own philosophies of change; are supported through the process of life drawing and live art performance in a museological environment.

During the workshop, artist Angela Hodgson-Teall will 'draw on the nature of empathy' in times of crisis (the subject of her PhD, completed in 2014) and will perform with live artist and model, Miles Coote, who will recite the performance text 'Can I make a Painting if I am too ill Mrs Aids'. Audiences will be invited to join in and draw, with materials provided. The workshop will be followed by a 'reflective layer' led by Juliet Scott (Tavistock Institute of Human Relations), weaving together the audiences' collective thoughts and emotions and learning from the performance. Juliet led 'Social Dreaming the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations' Archive' events at the Wellcome Library Reading Room and for this performance she will also consider relevant projects from the Institute's archive in the support and empowerment of participants with HIV and Aids; the online research and self-help exchange (SEAHORSE, 1996) and the 'London Lighthouse' report.

Through the workshop we hope to promote a public conversation about LGBTQ venue closures and the usage of mobile apps such as Grindr.

This collaborative event is organised by Miles Coote (artist and Bareback Museum founder), Ben Campkin (UCL Urban Laboratory), Angela Hodgson-Teall (artist, researcher and microbiologist at Wanda Klenz Productions) and Juliet Scott (Tavistock Institute of Human Relations). The project is funded through the UCL Institute of Advanced Studies, under the Lies and Vulnerability research themes, and UCL Urban Laboratory.

Two workshops will run during the night, with participants of either timeslot welcome to observe the other one.

Access information:

There is step free access into the Bloomsbury Theatre Studio, and accessible toilets are located within the building. View detailed accessibility information on DisabledGo. If you would like to know more about the workshop, please contact Jordan Rowe urbanlaboratory@ucl.ac.uk

This event is not suitable for under 16s, and the workshop contains nudity.

Further links:

• Reserve a place on Eventbrite
• Download the poster (pdf)