Aftermath of Ladies Room

Ladies Room (close up), Chaz Howkins, 2017, interactive installation

Ladies Room (close up), Chaz Howkins, 2017, interactive installation

Ladies Room (close up), Chaz Howkins, 2017, interactive installation 

Ladies Room (close up), Chaz Howkins, 2017, interactive installation

Ladies Room (close up), Chaz Howkins, 2017, interactive installation

I was very glad to see how many people interacted with Ladies Room while it was exhibited at Queer Art(ists) Now, creating a great pile of discarded toilet tissue on the floor below the dispenser.  Seeing the pile of tissues grow on the floor, being trodden on, dripped on, completely discarded really emphasised the throwaway nature of the comments people make to queer people in gendered spaces.  When someone in the ladies room asks me 'are you a woman?' it's a fleeting moment for them, they don't think about what they're saying, they just throw their words at me... but for me it sticks, it piles up, I can't just throw it away.

Queer Art(ists) Now

Ladies Room, Chaz Howkins, 2017, interactive installation

Self with work - Ladies Room

Queer Art(ists) Now provides a snap-shot of what artists within our communities are making right now; an insight into the thoughts, preoccupations, aesthetics, and politics of queer artists.

I was excited to have the opportunity to exhibit Ladies Room as it is an interactive piece and I wanted to witness the public's engagement with it.  The piece had a very positive response with hundreds of people taking the toilet tissues from the dispenser and dropping them on the floor to create a great pile of the discarded words.

Orbit UK Art Graduates Show

Myself with my artwork - Don't Linger

Myself with my friends and family and my artwork - Don't Linger

Audience interaction with Don't Linger  

Audience interaction with Don't Linger 

Orbit UK Art Graduates Show was an exhibition to showcase the talent of recent Fine Art graduates.  (One third of) Don't Linger was exhibited at OXO Tower Bargehouse in August and was very well received by the audience.

Interaction with Don't Linger

Don't Linger with audience 

Don't Linger with audience

Don't Linger with audience

Don't Linger with audience 

Don't Linger with audience

Public interaction with Don't Linger at Loughborough Fine Art Degree Show 2018.

Degree Show Opening Night

Myself with my artwork - Don't Linger

Don't Linger with audience

Don't Linger with audience

The opening night of the Loughborough Fine Art 2018 Degree Show was a great success.  My work was very well received and had members of the public interacting with it all throughout the night.  A very satisfying end to my time spent studying in Loughborough.

Interrogation #2

Interrogation #2, Chaz Howkins, 2018, toilet
seat and acrylic on canvas 

Interrogation #2, Chaz Howkins, 2018, toilet
seat and acrylic on canvas 

Interrogation #2, Chaz Howkins, 2018, toilet
seat and acrylic on canvas 

Another interactive work portraying a queer experience of using a public gendered space such as a bathroom.

Interrogation in situ

Interrogation (in situ)

An experiment to see how the artwork would look placed atop a real toilet - perhaps in future I could create these portraits with slogans as stickers to be stuck under the lids of public toilets as a form of activism. 

Interrogation

Installation view

Installation view 

Interrogation, Chaz Howkins, 2017, acrylic on scratched toilet seat and lid

A self portrait painted on the underside of a toilet seat lid.  The artwork should be positioned closed on top of a plinth so that the audience has to interact with it to reveal the painting.  Once the lid is opened the audience should then notice the text scratched into the lid around the portrait which can only be seen up close.  The text is a series of phrases which have been said to myself or other gender non conforming people while using the women's bathroom.