Don't Linger - detail

Don't Linger - detail

Don't Linger - detail

Don't Linger - detail

Don't Linger - detail

Detail shots from Don't Linger while installed at Loughborough Fine Art Degree Show 2018.

Don't Linger

Don't Linger, Chaz Howkins, 2018, installation (toilet seats, pen, pencil on paper)

Don't Linger - Detail

Don't Linger - Detail

Don't Linger - Detail

Don't Linger - Detail

Don’t Linger is an interactive installation of 27 toilet seats mounted to a wall; the viewer can lift up the lids of the toilet seats to reveal portrait drawings and text.  The portraits are realistic pencil drawings of androgynous or gender non-conforming people and the text comes from their individual stories of anxiety or harassment they’ve experienced in public gendered spaces.

​Don’t Linger questions the difference between gender identity and gender expression as well as the difference between gender and sex while critiquing the rigid segregation of gender in public spaces.  The intention is to showcase the experiences of queer people navigating gendered spaces, particularly public bathrooms, in the hope of making a predominantly non-queer audience reconsider how they interact with members of the queer community within these spaces.

Experimenting with backgrounds and surface qualities

With tile effect wall-paper

Text on tile effect wall paper

Finger print effect

Dirty seat effect on dark tile effect wall-paper

Various experiments involving tile effect wall paper as a background to transform the gallery space into a bathroom space.  I experimented with dirtying the lid to create a more realistic experience of using a public bathroom, but decided that this would put people off interacting with the work.  I also consider creating a finger print on the lid to encourage people to touch it, but felt that this was unnecessary and could also put people off interacting with the work.