Created during my Artist in Residence with the C.V.P. Residency in the Marais district of Paris, Queer Bar Light Room emerged from being surrounded by the neighbourhood’s gay bars and the imposing presence of the Centre Pompidou.

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I became interested in the idea of the gay bar dark room, not only as a space of fantasy and desire, but also of restriction, secrecy, and coded visibility. Using Pompidou’s inside-out architecture as a starting point, I inverted the structure conceptually and physically, asking: what does a queer fantasy look like when brought fully into the light?

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I invited 20 queer people from across the world to share their fantasies, creating a collective portrait of desire, intimacy, and possibility. Ten contributors submitted written and spoken responses, from which I developed a series of illustrated projections, each colour-coded to its narrative source. As the projections overlap, the stories merge, becoming layered, unstable, and joyfully queer.

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Comprising two video sequences of varying length, the work is designed for infinite variation. Built as a modular installation, Queer Bar Light Room can continuously expand, welcoming new fantasies and new voices into its evolving architecture.

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Always projected onto frosted windows, the work turns private longing outward, making queer visions visible to the world.

 

The development of this work is currently being supported by the ‘a space arts’ turning point bursary.