HOMOBLOC PRESENTS: CORBIN SHAW'S LGBTQIA + CHARITY AUCTION
Guts Gallery is presenting four powerful and exceptional flags – It’s Queer Up North, You Are Not Alone, A Sea of People which were showcased at Homobloc Festival 2021 and unpublished work Dance Culture.
Homobloc has collaborated with multidisciplinary artist Corbin Shaw, to create a series of works exploring the performance of masculinity in heteronormative spaces dominated by men – including large scale flags with powerful phrases and other merchandise which were showcased exclusively at Homobloc Festival on 6th November 2021.
Shaw’s work was featured throughout the festival, alongside special limited merchandise. Please contact Homobloc to enquire. These exceptional flags featured messages of love and were paraded on stage by performers in a powerful moment of unity.
Fresh off the festival, and now the flags have stopped dancing – Homobloc is auctioning off these exclusive and bespoke flags by Shaw in collaboration with Guts Gallery. All proceeds will go toward Homobloc’s growing pot and ongoing fundraise to support the queer block party’s amazing LGBTQIA+ charity partners – George House Trust, LGBT Foundation, akt - (previously the Albert Kennedy Trust), and ALL OUT.
The flags being auctioned off are It’s Queer Up North (2021), You Are Not Alone (2021), A Sea of People (2021) which were showcased at Homobloc Festival, home of The Warehouse Project, and an unpublished work Dance Culture (2021) – all works by Corbin Shaw and items in this auction are being sold by Guts Gallery.
On his work with Homobloc and following up after the festival on 6th November 2021, Shaw said: “Now the glitter and dust has settled, the flags have stopped dancing in the wind and my brain is slowly patching itself back together. This weekend was one of the most surreal moments I’ve ever experienced. From three years back writing some of those phrases in my notebook to seeing them flying through the air on stage at Homobloc.
It was the first time I’d ever shown my work back in the North. I returned home from a life-changing weekend a changed man. I told my parents of everything that had happened and cried my eyes out at how proud of myself I am. I’ve always found it difficult to say that out loud. I felt a real sense of belonging amongst everyone in that crowd. From feeling rejected and outcasted by lads at football, to returning back to the North with messages of love on flags like the ones I based them on at the matches. Such an incredible full-circle moment.
I love you all and thank you to all the people I met and how you made me feel this weekend.”
About Homobloc, Corbin Shaw & Guts Gallery
Homobloc Press Office
For more information and images, or to arrange an interview, please contact We Are Indigo:
Gemma Krysko gemma@weareindigopr.com
Kezia Tirayoh kezia@weareindigopr.com
About Homobloc
This is the place… Homobloc is a queer block party for all. For homos, hetros, lesbos, don’t knows and disko asbos. All of us. Love is the message. There shall be no fighting, blighting, shiteing, celebrity sighting or ego biting. We are gender bender strobe-light honeys. We are Chaka Khan. Chaka Chaka Khan. We are a black heart disko. No fakers, mugs or thugs. Music is life. We are the late night disenfranchised and this is our church. Stay free. Forget Brexit cul-de-sac fundamentalists blaming immigrants. We are tops off evangelism. So [filtered word] fashionable negativity, let’s fly the flag for all things passionate and real. Love saves the day. Dirty is truth. Dirty is the heart and soul. We are the dirty bastards. It’s time to return to the source. Back to basics with vocals from heaven, odd numbers and basslines. Listen without prejudice. In a magical hidden Manchester warehouse. Love is lit. This is our place. A place where we can dance till we are free.
Website: www.homobloc.co.uk
Instagram: @homobloc
About Corbin Shaw
Corbin Shaw is a multidisciplinary artist who works mainly with video, sound and sculpture. Shaw’s practice explores the performance of masculinity in heteronormative spaces dominated by men. He examines how public notions of masculinity are shaped and how young men conform and disrupt traditional standards of masculinity.
Shaw is interested in examining the enforcement of gender roles by the father figure and how those roles have developed through the rise and fall of industrial Britain. His practice tries to understand the invisible authority of our peers that tells us we should be conforming to strict rules on what our gender should or should not be. He wants to understand how gender norms become established, how they are policed, and how best to disrupt and overcome them.
Website: www.corbinshaw.com
Instagram: @corbinshaww
About Guts Gallery
The traditional art business model reflects socio-political austerity. A system that disproportionately benefits people who do not experience racial oppression, ableism, gender, and class discriminations (to name a few). Acting as a platform and support system artists are often denied, Guts works to challenge and revise this model; that leaves artists and staff undervalued and underpaid. In doing so, Guts exhibits artists at different stages of their career and facilitates genuine relationships between artists and collectors. Connecting artists who reflect their lived experiences in their work with those who are eager to support them.
Guts applies adaptive business practices to position itself at the forefront of the art world’s next generation of contemporary voices. It forgoes the burdensome overhead that accompanies a permanent location. Guts operates on a nomadic basis, leveraging communal trust and initiative to exhibit in technologically innovative ways, providing larger sales percentages to artists and living wages to staff. Guts flips the traditional power dynamics between gallerist and artist, creating safe spaces, accessibility, constructive dialogue and collective shouldering. In an art world scared to speak out about inequality for fear of jeopardizing their positions, Guts Gallery refuses to be silenced.
Website: www.gutsgallery.co.uk
Instagram: @guts_gallery
