Equalise Nightlife: Exhibition Exploring Femininity, Sexuality & Gender Relations In Drinking Culture
A new art exhibition, Equalise Nightlife, is launching on Monday 27 February, which explores women and LGBTQ+ people’s experiences of alcohol and nightlife spaces such as bars and clubs.
The Equalise Nightlife project is a programme of research, led by Dr Amanda Marie Atkinson, with research support from Beth Meadows.
Taking an intersectional feminist perspective, it investigated how drinking and nightlife are experienced unequally and are influenced by alcohol brand and nightlife venue marketing.
The exhibition presents a number of art works conceptualised and created by Amanda such as sculpture, as well as collaborative photography, and poetry created by research participants. Art works are underpinned by findings of an analysis of brand and venue marketing, interviews with women and LGBTQ+ people, and discussions with marketers and venues. It explores the:
- pleasures and risk involved in drinking and nightlife participation
- importance of drinking and nightlife to feminine and LGBTQ+ identity making
- targeting of women and LGBTQ+ people by alcohol brands and venue
- inequalities that exist in nightlife and drinking including the normalisation of unwanted (sexual) attention
This is a public exhibition. Booking is not required for viewing the works.
Booking is required for attending the research/artist talk from Dr Amanda Marie Atkinson on Tuesday 7 March 5pm-7pm. The talk coincides with International Women’s Day, and will provide an overview of the research that underpinned the art works, and explanation of each exhibited piece.
The exhibition runs from Monday 27 February – Friday 10 March, 8am-6pm in the John Lennon Art and Design building.
