2021
Abingdon Studios
Z
Rebekah Beasley
Multidisciplinary artist
Warrington, UK
www.rebekahjbeasley.co
@rebekahjbeasley
Title: Z is for Zoetrope- Camp Stool.
Medium: Wooden Bar Stool, Upholstered Cushion, Rotating Platform
A prissy bar stool. The pub. Your local. That smell of beer and cigarettes in the air. A sticky floor stained from years of glass clinks, shoulder rubs and missteps. Squeaky bar stools with ripped velvet seats worn down by decades of old man arse. Beasley associates these spaces with a past version of themsleves, somebody who found comfort in them. Camp Stool 2021 explores our relationship with these social spaces, often forgetting that queer people exist in them too.
A jukebox playing quietly in the background under the roars of laughter and glasses clinking. Beasley remembers visiting a Men’s Social Club during their childhood, sitting on their Grandad’s lap at the bar. They remember watching old TV shows with typically heteronormative male figures in their wifebeaters and suspenders ranting about the ‘new world’. Their grandad passed away when they were 9 years old. “He was an old fashioned guy, but my relationship with him was the most important to me. When I got into my first queer relationship in my early twenties, my nan told me he wouldn’t have approved. I think he would have loved this piece of work, personally.”
Champagne Velour, piping, and fringing elevates this typical bar stool into a new queer light. The moving element of this piece emphasises the performative nature of being queer in these kinds of spaces; finding it uncomfortable to be oneself, twirling silently to the jukebox music.
This piece will be displayed alongside a QR code to a playlist curated to empower and inspire the queer community.
Rebekah Beasley
Multidisciplinary artist
Warrington, UK
www.rebekahjbeasley.co
@rebekahjbeasley
Title: Z is for Zoetrope- Camp Stool.
Medium: Wooden Bar Stool, Upholstered Cushion, Rotating Platform
A prissy bar stool. The pub. Your local. That smell of beer and cigarettes in the air. A sticky floor stained from years of glass clinks, shoulder rubs and missteps. Squeaky bar stools with ripped velvet seats worn down by decades of old man arse. Beasley associates these spaces with a past version of themsleves, somebody who found comfort in them. Camp Stool 2021 explores our relationship with these social spaces, often forgetting that queer people exist in them too.
A jukebox playing quietly in the background under the roars of laughter and glasses clinking. Beasley remembers visiting a Men’s Social Club during their childhood, sitting on their Grandad’s lap at the bar. They remember watching old TV shows with typically heteronormative male figures in their wifebeaters and suspenders ranting about the ‘new world’. Their grandad passed away when they were 9 years old. “He was an old fashioned guy, but my relationship with him was the most important to me. When I got into my first queer relationship in my early twenties, my nan told me he wouldn’t have approved. I think he would have loved this piece of work, personally.”
Champagne Velour, piping, and fringing elevates this typical bar stool into a new queer light. The moving element of this piece emphasises the performative nature of being queer in these kinds of spaces; finding it uncomfortable to be oneself, twirling silently to the jukebox music.
This piece will be displayed alongside a QR code to a playlist curated to empower and inspire the queer community.
