How do queer, trans and gender diverse people relate to religion and faith? And how might we relate to the religious collections at RAMM?

Religion and faith are one of the core themes of Out and About: Queering the Museum at RAMM. At this event, Writer In Residence Natalie McGrath shared an early-stage creative response to two translated love letters between lesbian medieval nuns. Natalie’s writing has also been inspired by medieval objects from RAMM’s collections and she has been exploring representations of queer people of faith from the medieval period and beyond. In addition, Natalie will consider the process of writing during a pandemic and ideas around where writing and devotion meet.

To frame the reading, Prof Jana Funke (University of Exeter) drew on her research on lesbian and trans history, to explore how people in the past engaged with different religious beliefs and faiths to understand their gender and sexual identities. Jana’s research focuses on LGBTQ+ writers who engaged with Christianity and found meaning within religious ritual, community and iconography.

We were delighted that Belinda Dillon from Exeter City of Literature, one of our project partners, joined us to open the event.

The event was hosted by Ellie Coleman, one of our project co-directors, and Engagement Officer at RAMM.

Rejected Gay Sand Reading by Caleb Parkin

Find out more about Caleb Parkin.

Inspired by RAMM’s Ivor Treby sand collection.

Learn more about Caleb Parkin’s work on the project more widely in the following video.

Digital Short by Oren Shoesmith

Inspired by RAMM’s Magic Lantern Slides hymn sheets.

Find out more about Oren Shoesmith’s work.

Digital Short by Charice Bhardwaj and Carina Miles

Welcome to the matchbox cabaret … where the wall tastes like sugar, and the dancefloor’s alight, but the world is bigger in here, so we like it.” Well, sometimes. We’re struggling to find our way into the matchbox, and we’re worried that we’re underdressed, but we’ll squeeze in anyway and try not to burn our heads off too much under the stairs. Inspired by a 19th century matchbox in the RAMM collections during lockdown, and a variety of tiny objects, collaborators Charice and Carina discover a small queer world of pink hares and dark cupboards. ? ???✌️

Find out more about Charice Bhardwaj and Carina Miles.

Inspired by RAMM’s metal matchbox!

Content Description: The video contains some profanity and flashing lights.

Artists’ Platform

During lockdown, we commissioned Charice Bhardwaj, Carina Miles, Caleb Parkin and Oren Shoesmith to work with us on queering the museum. At our live event, which you can watch below, the artists shared some of their initial work and talked about their process. What are the challenges when working on the collections without being able to visit the museum? What ideas and forms of collaboration have emerged in their practice as artists? How can we queer the museum and engage with the collections at a distance?

The event featured conversations about queer and trans art, thinking and practice, as the artists covered a range of topics and themes including: the rejected gay sand of collector Ivor Treby, poetry inspired by scattered language and the art of queer failure, a variety of tiny objects (including a 19th-century matchbox) leading to the discovery of a small queer world of pink hares and dark cupboards, and finding queer and trans resonances in religious stories of transformation.

Lovebirds and Rocks

donated by Caleb Parkin