UKYA City Takeover Nottingham

Myself with Don't Linger - Installation View: UKYA City Takeover, Surface Gallery, Nottingham, 2019

Don't Linger - Installation View: UKYA City Takeover, Surface Gallery, Nottingham, 2019 

Don't Linger - Installation View: UKYA City Takeover, Surface Gallery, Nottingham, 2019

UKYA City Takeover spanned the city of Nottingham for a week in early February 2019.  The festival united 250 artists from 25 countries, showcasing a huge variety of contemporary work, from visual arts to performance; music; applied arts; literature; digital arts and moving image.

I was very happy to be involved in one of the largest biennials of national and international artists in the world, by exhibiting Don't Linger at Surface Gallery.  I was very pleased at how the public engaged with the work and the conversations it provoked. 

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.

Genderhouse Festival

Myself with my artwork - Are You A Boy Or A Girl?

Myself with my artworks - Gendered Space (series)

Myself with my artworks - Gendered Space (series)

Myself with my artworks - Gendered Space (series)

After the incredible honour of having an entire room in the Women's Museum dedicated to my work, I was even more thrilled to be informed that the Women's Museum have requested my film and photographic series to be added to their permanent collection.  The works will remain on show in the museum for an extended period of time.

Genderhouse Festival

Talking Genders Youth Exhibition - Genderhouse Festival - Women's Museum, Aarhus, Denmark

Talking Genders Youth Exhibition - Genderhouse Festival - Women's Museum, Aarhus, Denmark

Talking Genders Youth Exhibition - Genderhouse Festival - Women's Museum, Aarhus, Denmark

Talking Genders Youth Exhibition - Genderhouse Festival - Women's Museum, Aarhus, Denmark

Talking Genders Youth Exhibition - Genderhouse Festival - Women's Museum, Aarhus, Denmark

Talking Genders Youth Exhibition - Genderhouse Festival - Women's Museum, Aarhus, Denmark

The Genderhouse Festival was a month celebration of queer arts in Aarhus, with performances, workshops and exhibitions throughout the city throughout September.

I was thrilled to discover that an entire room of the Women's Museum had been dedicated to my work.  My film, Are You A Boy Or A Girl?, was projected large scale onto the walls, surrounded by my photographic series, Gendered Space.  The entire exhibition was beautifully curated, queering the walls of the gendered exhibition space.

Queer Art(ists) Now

Ladies Room, Chaz Howkins, 2017, installation (toilet tissue dispenser and ink on toilet tissue)

I'm very excited to finally have an opportunity to exhibit Ladies Room.  The work will be at the Rose Lipman Building from October 11-14th as part of the Queer Art(ists) Now exhibition.

The audience is invited to take a tissue from the toilet tissue dispenser, read it and then either keep it or discard it by adding it to the pile on the floor below.  On each tissue is written something which has been said in a public women's bathroom to an individual who presents themselves in a gender non-conforming manner.

https://www.facebook.com/events/442765912884481/

Genderhouse Festival

Genderhouse Festival Poster

The Genderhouse Festival is a month long arts festival in Aarhus, Denmark which addresses themes of genders, sexualities and identities today. It asks what's queer? Is it here? Are we used to it?

My film, Are You A Boy Or A Girl? and some photography is being exhibited at the Women's Museum as part of the Talking Genders Youth Exhibition.

www.thegenderhousefestival.com 

Portrait Drawings

Don't Linger - detail

Don't Linger - detail

Don't Linger - detail

Don't Linger - detail

Don't Linger - detail

A selection of the portrait drawings which can be found under the toilet seats lids of Don't Linger.

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.

Queer Art(ists) Now exhibition

Queer Art(ists) Now was an opportunity for LGBTQ+ artists to showcase their work as a part of And What? Queer Arts Festival, an annual London based arts festival.

Queer Art(ists) Now Exhibition

Opening night tomorrow

Talking Genders Exhibition

Myself with my film installation: Are You A Boy Or A Girl? Chaz Howkins, 2017, film

Talking Genders Exhibition was a part of And What? Queer Arts Festival - a London based festival which showcases the work of LGBTQ+ artists.  Talking Genders Project involved myself and 12 other young queer artists being chosen to take part in a 3 week intensive artistic development programme.  The programme consisted of guest artist workshops and artistic mentoring by the Himherandit team, working towards creating an artwork for this exhibition.  The exhibition intended to act as an empowering space and give visibility to diverse perspectives of young LGBTQ+ artists.  I found this programme and exhibition to be an incredibly valuable experience and am very grateful to have been made a part of it.

Gendered Space photography series

Gendered Space, Chaz Howkins, 2017, photograph

Gendered Space #2, Chaz Howkins, 2017, photograph

Gendered Space #3, Chaz Howkins, 2017, photograph

Gendered Space #4, Chaz Howkins, 2017, photograph

Gendered Space #5 (Self), Chaz Howkins, 2017, photograph

Gendered spaces such as bathrooms are a place of anxiety for androgynous presenting people as we are often subjected to interrogation or harassment.  I posed an androgynous model in this unsafe space with the words ‘are you a boy or a girl’ written on their face to replicate this common experience.

Recreating Diary Pages

Diary Deconstruction #1, Chaz Howkins, 2017, fine liner

Diary Deconstruction #2, Chaz Howkins, 2017, fine liner

Diary Deconstruction #3, Chaz Howkins, 2017, fine liner

A recreation of pre-teenage diary pages of cryptic messages about discovering my sexuality.

Typography Experimentations

Dear America, Chaz Howkins, 2016, pen and coloured pencil

Miss EU Already, Chaz Howkins, 2016, coloured pencil and fine liner

I've been wanting to experiment with typography so decided to create some topical drawings based on recent events.

Zone Magazine Article

I was very happy to be featured in the June edition of Zone Magazine in the lead up to my solo exhibition in Leicester.