Team Assistant Cami O’Hagan gives their thoughts on the need for change in how we celebrate Pride month. Exploring the queer ecologies of utopia, and experiencing joy and resistance through connecting with nature in June’s artwork of the month; Arcadia: Queer by Nature (2023-24) by Jack Jameson.
When I think about Pride Month, I think about individuals coming together to celebrate LGBTQ+ identity, equality and history, usually celebrated in the form of protest – images run through my mind of crowds of people taking over city streets, groups marching with banners, together in solidarity with one another.
I have always enjoyed this time of year, although I do believe minority groups should be championed and celebrated all year round, not just one month per year. Seeing pride blossom across Salford is always joyful; progress flags flying from windows and balconies, drag queens and kings performing in Peel Park for the Pink Picnic, and queerness visible in places you may never of thought it would be.
In recent years I have witnessed a major change in attitudes and environments in relation to how pride is celebrated; pride events are mainly held in metropolitan or town centre’s, which has many benefits in bringing people together, but this also has its negatives. If you live in a city, most LGBTQ+ spaces during Pride are majorly associated with alcohol. Nowadays I feel that pride is seen as less of a protest and more of an excuse to over-indulge on alcohol. Throughout this blog I am going to implement Arcadia: Queer by Nature as my foundation in celebrating pride through connecting with nature.
Install shot
Image: Courtesy of Jules Lister
Created by Jack Jameson, Manchester-based interdisciplinary artist, Salford alumni and graduate scholar, their practice quests to establish the thresholds of queerness, identity, and speculative story telling. Working across analogue and digital media Jameson has produced this large sculpture with an accompanying video through a combination of craft, poetry, costume design, 3D scanning, printing and rendering, photography and animation. Here Jameson has bridged the classical medium of sculpture with futuristic technologies, building ‘unworldly narratives of the queer form’ confronting conventional and heteronormative interpretation of natural spaces.
Arcadia’s characters ‘the water siren, forest nymph and rock troll dwell in in harmony – free to be’ drawing from mythology and folklore, using this landscape to act as a utopia, stripping these beings of society’s preconceived cautionary traits such as malevolent, predatory, and hyper-feminised. Jameson reclaims the landscape to show nature and identity can be seen within a fluid ecology, mirroring the intersectionality of LGBTQ+ lives.
Poem included in accompanied video, text reads:
Foraged from scrap,
Yet forged into treasure,
Here floats Arcadia.
A harmonious sanctuary.
Where water seeps,
rock weathers,
And minerals scatter,
Sprouting life.
Retold in this virtual realm of broken binaries and unbridled fantasy,
We prosper in imperfect harmony.
Here… We are one.
The poetry ‘Foraged from scrap, Yet forged into treasure‘ from my own experience in building community, reflects finding chosen family, historically LGBTQ+ folks have claimed spaces, languages and materials such as parks, polari and handkerchiefs to build a protective sanctuary and meet others alike. By taking disparate materials Jameson has transformed this Arcadia into a functional ecosystem, where the characters can integrate and thrive in ‘imperfect harmony’.
When first introduced to Arcadia: Queer by Nature back in 2024 during the install of CATALYST exhibition, this artwork changed how I thought about and experienced my own queerness; mostly through connecting with nature as an act of resistance. Exploring different landscapes in relation to my own fluidity as a non-binary person, revisiting Kersal Wetlands, Fletcher Moss and Peel Park, in some ways these spaces have become my own utopia’s.
Arcadia; Queer by Nature, 2023-24
Close-up shots
Image: Courtesy of Jules Lister
In building this new relationship with nature, this has allowed me space to restore my energy within a cultural moment where many queer individuals don’t feel space in urban spaces, due to the rigid and aggressive expectations of how we should look, act or identify.
To conclude, I hope to have reimagined how LGBTQ+ individuals can celebrate pride in alternative spaces. Arcadia: Queer by Nature shows us how the natural world has a role in our own queerness through inclusivity; providing us with a judgement free environment.
For more updates and information on Jack Jameson’s work visit:
Instagram: @jackwjameson
Website: jack Jameson