Watch Party CineQ

Our collection, your place Barber Home & CineQ Watch Party

For this edition of Barber Home, CineQ will be holding a live watch party showcasing short independent queer film, responding to Domenico Beccafumi’s Reclining Nymph (1519)

CineQ is a Birmingham-based queer film festival that makes QTIPOC (Queer, Trans, Intersex People of Colour) stories more accessible. Starting out as a community cinema, CineQ has grown into a four day festival that showcases the best in local and international queer film.

Inspired by the beautiful, androgynous water nymph, CineQ has programmed a series of shorts that explores gender identity and expression, celebrating non- binary, intersex and trans narratives. With many Pride events cancelled and safe spaces closed, building a sense of ‘home’ in a nurturing community of support is more important than ever. CineQ queers the notion of ‘home’, examining the queer bodies, identities and communities as a ‘home’.

As trans and non-binary rights are being attacked across the world, let’s come together and use the power of art, film and community to build collective love in defiance of fear and ignorance.

If you missed this event, fear not! Below you will be able to access a watch-list of all the queer shorts featured in this screening.

CineQ Illustration Tomekah George, 2020

barber.org.uk @barberinstitute Domenico Beccafumi (1484–1551) Reclining Nymph , about 1519 Oil on wood

Domenico di Pace Beccafumi (1484 situation, reclining on a mossy and - 1551) was an Italian fecund riverbank, and the pose. The painter of the of nymph is accompanied by a putto . A son of a peasant, he was (a representation of a small, naked, adopted by the landowner Lorenzo often winged, male child) holding Beccafumi, who spotted his talent a whirligig, a spinning windmill toy, for drawing. Despite his training, his perhaps signifying the transience work is often considered provincial and and disquiet of love. only mildly influenced by the then- fashionable Florentine Mannerism. What immediately strikes the modern eye is the nymph’s gender-ambiguous This ‘reclining nymph’, painted on a appearance, with a ‘feminine’ face wooden panel, originally formed part and breasts but an athletic ‘masculine’ of the decoration of the bedchamber physique. Such androgynous figures of Francesco Petrucci of Siena and are a familiar feature in works of his wife Caterina Piccolomini, where Italian Renaissance masters like it was used as the headboard. With Michelangelo and Leonardo. These its themes of love and fertility, it sat figures now provoke a variety of alongside other panels in the room reactions, from mirth to awe, wonder in an illustrated series of virtuous and serious academic questioning. heroines from antiquity. One reason offered for this style is that The androgynous figure in the centre a contemporary sense of propriety was until recently taken to be Venus, limited the availability of female life the goddess of love, sexuality and models, and so enterprising artists fertility. However, more recently the simply used male models and applied figure has been understood to be the head and breasts of women on a water nymph due to the figure’s male bodies. This explanation is not

barber.org.uk @barberinstitute totally satisfying as there are many aesthetic values of art. examples of wholly ‘female’ forms from the period. Whilst we can perhaps Another explanation is that imagine the artist, exasperated by androgynous bodies were used lack of supply of models, resorting due to an interest in androgynous to what could be termed a cut-and- figures from classical myths. The shut method of painting, it is more writings of the ancients were being difficult to imagine wealthy patrons re-discovered and incorporated into being satisfied by this approach. the rising number of secular at this time, and the classics abound It seems likely that the Renaissance in androgyny. In the Athenian viewer of such figures must have philosopher Plato’s symposium, perceived them very differently to us, we find Aristophanes’ tale of the their modern counterparts. Perhaps androgyne - the original human in the explanation can be found in whom the sexes were combined, and differing philosophical understandings there is the tale of Hermaphroditus, of sex. American historian and writer the son of Hermes and Aphrodite, Thomas Laqueur argues that there who united with the nymph Salmacis was “… in the sixteenth century, as to form a single body. there had been in classical antiquity, only one canonical body, and that But perhaps the most appealing body was male”. The classical explanation is that androgynous physician Galen held that all bodies figures were simply seen as beautiful were essentially male, that is they and aesthetically pleasing in their held the all elements and properties own right. Mario Equicola, Italian of the male archetype, but that Renaissance humanist, claimed in women’s bodies were deformed 1525 that ‘the effeminate male and versions. Lacquer suggests that this the manly female are graceful in idea persisted into, or perhaps was almost every aspect’. re-born in, the Renaissance. Though contested by contemporary historians While we might not come to any such as Katharine Park and Monica firm conclusions about the use of Green, this “one-sex model”, has been androgynous figures in Renaissance a prominent way to examine sex in art, considering possible meanings Renaissance Art. invites us to question our own received certainties about sex, Alternatively, use of androgynous gender, bodies and beauty. It is all too figures in Renaissance work has easy to imagine that society’s ideas been linked to the artists’ sexuality, about what is male, what is female and perhaps the use of a ‘masculine’ and what is beautiful are universal physique simply shows the sexual and eternal, but by looking at the preference of the painter. This works like Reclining Nymph we see explanation, however, again requires that this is not the case. We might that the patrons be satisfied with conclude that the ambiguous and the results. Perhaps homosexuality, un-categorisable has always existed which was common in Renaissance and that the absence of certainty , simply influenced the broader can itself be beautiful.

barber.org.uk @barberinstitute Gender Terms

Definitions can cause trouble - by definition they limit options and possibilities. Queerness resists the borders implied by any project to define and categorise. Having said that, it is important to critically engage with definitions if we are to begin to understand what gender means to ourselves and others. Here are some possible definitions of terms that will be relevant when watching CineQ’s programme of shorts, or when looking at Beccafumi’s Reclining Nymph.

Gender… Sex… is a description we all give ourselves is a description based on about who we are. Gender is based on various elements of a person’s our own psychology and sense of identity biology, and is usually assigned but is also socially constructed, having to to a person at birth. Sex is do with our relationship to established based on observed biological gender norms. A person’s gender may characteristics like genitals, align with their sex, in which case they hormones, body hair and are generally termed cis, or not, in which more. Often sex is imagined case they are generally termed trans. as being binary (either a man or a woman) but a significant number of people are intersex, having sexual characteristics Gender Expression... that cannot be so easily is the way a person presents themselves categorised into one of two through clothing, demeanour, actions and groups. more. Your external-facing self, and how it is interpreted by others. This may relate to gender identity, but is not the same, for example a person may express themselves Sexual Orientation… in a ‘masc’ way while identifying as a describes which gender(s), if woman. any, a person is sexually and/ or romantically attracted to. Descriptions of sexual Non-Binary… orientation (or sexuality) often is either a specific gender identity that relate to the gender of both the does not fit into the perceived binary subject and object of attraction choice of male / female, or an umbrella (for example a man who is term for a large number of different attracted to women may be identities that don’t fit that binary - for straight but a woman who is example genderqueer, hijra, two-spirit, attracted to women may be a demi-boi, agender etc. Many non-binary lesbian) but is usually considered people use gender-neutral pronouns such in the modern West to be an as they/them, ze/hir, xe/xem in place of entirely separate characteristic he/him or she/her. to gender identity.

barber.org.uk @barberinstitute CineQ Watch List Ajamu | Stephen Isaac Wilson CineQ and the Barber do not own the This film celebrates the life and career rights to any of these films or music. of photographer and artist Ajamu, and The full programme is freely available use him as a conduit to explore the black on YouTube. Please click the film titles British gay sexual experience. in this list to watch and support the filmmakers directly. Thank you. Headspace | Jake Graf A rare and intimate glimpse into the trials and tribulations faced by trans Beyond the Binary | D Kettchen folk on a daily basis. A very simplified introduction to non- binary gender for anyone who needs it. Turning | Linnéa Haviland A short animation about the impact Androgyny | Jordan Shelwood of homo- bi- and transphobia on An introspective of androgyny, this film young people, and how support and looks at the nuances between fashion community can help us grow. and gender neutral identities. Body | Nathan Cooper Catechism | Shon Faye An exploration of the body through the Shon Faye reflects on her experiences use of paint. within all sides of the LGBT spectrum, and scrutinises the labels that mainstream Mother Comes to Venus | society have forced upon her, in her Zachary Drucker short film Catechism. A film which paints a sassy landscape for the near future. In a post- Baby X | Brendan Bailey gender Hollywood she helped create, The Xtraordinary story of a child powerhouse agent Venus Allen is raised without gender. Adapted from besieged by unexpected events and the original short story by Lois Gould, demanding visitors. Blinded by success published in 1978. and in danger of losing her soul, Venus gets help from an unlikely source: her Learning to be Soft Again | delightfully spiritual ‘mother.’ Jake Moore Beneath pulsating lights, queer figures The Muse | Anne Fearon emerge to carve out new forms; gestural A stunning sequence of intimate projections of identity and desire. The portraits shot through the frame of a dance floor becomes a site of rebirth mirror, accompanied by voiceover of the as, through collective movement, their subjects discussing the intersection of bodies transform into a glistening their identities, being both queer/non configuration. binary and a person of colour.

They, Them | Nymph | Brooke Candy/Betsy Johnson Sarah Murphy and Madison Schaefer Music video from Brooke Candy that A short documentary about Liz, a reimagines the sexuality of a water talented musician and artist who nymph. identifies as nonbinary. They have composed their own music and published a comic book called “Cat We’d love to hear from you! City”. Liz talks about their experience Share your thoughts, feelings of being nonbinary and shares how they and interpretations to incorporate their identity into their art. #BarberHome2020

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