Screening
Film Screening: UK Gay Bar Directory
Organised by Somerset House
Tune into the UK Gay Bar Directory, a moving image archive of gay bars in the UK.
We'll be streaming the film at 15.00 every day for a week, across Twitch and Twitter.
Originally presented at Somerset House as part of the UTOPIA 2016 season and shot over a period of nine months, the film documents over 100 gay bars across 14 cities.
The film captures the bars when empty, distilling each venue’s interior character and personality. Made in response to the rapid closures of LGBTQ venues, the Directory captures a moment of change in queer history but also examines the broader consequences of more than a decade of austerity: the loss of public space and the dismantling of the state infrastructure.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Hannah Quinlan and Rosie Hastings (both born 1991, Newcastle & London) live and work in London. They have participated in group shows including the recent ‘Cruising Pavilion: Architecture, Gay Sex and Cruising Culture’, ArkDes, Stockholm; ‘Kiss My Genders’, Hayward Gallery, London; and ‘Queer Spaces: London, 1980s – Today’, Whitechapel Gallery, London (all 2019). Solo presentations include "In My Room" Focal Point Gallery, Southend-On-Sea (2020) ‘Something for The Boys’, Two Queens, Leicester (2018) and ‘Gaby’, Queer Thoughts, NYC (2018). Recent performances took place for Image Behaviour, ICA (2019), Art Night (2019), Move Festival, Pompidou Centre (2019), and Kiss My Gender Live, Southbank Centre (2019). The artists are represented by Arcadia Missa, London and Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin.