In 1997, during a symposium at Centre Pompidou, Leo Bersani presented a prescient critique of the assimilative tendencies that made ‘gays melt into the very culture they like to think of themselves as undermining.’ Mired in micropolitics, for Bersani, queer activism had relinquished the radical task of reconfiguring the horizon of the possible. Later published as ‘Gay Betrayals’, Bersani’s intervention champions a truly disruptive vision of homosexuality, one that betrays the relational, identitarian and communitarian foundations of bourgeois heterosexual respectability through ‘antimonogamous promiscuity’. Building on extensive artistic research into the politics of queer spaces and culture some 20 years later, artist duo Hannah Quinlan and Rosie Hastings revisit Bersani’s polemic with a response in three acts. Through a kaleidoscopic array of drawings, preparatory sketches and egg tempera paintings, a narrative of everyday (homo)sociality comes into view. A series of statuesque figures are caught as they feel the outlines of existing power structures, try out new strategies of inclusivity and, ultimately, wrestle with the blurred lineaments of identity and community.

Produced on the occasion of Hannah Quinlan and Rosie Hastings’ exhibition at the Tate Britain, London 24 September 2022–7 May 2023 as part of the Art Now series.

Hannah Quinlan and Rosie Hastings use the traditional medium of fresco painting to depict street scenes showing groups of people portraying various power dynamics, class and social relations and positions of authority. Their collaborative work is linked to their ongoing research and exploration into the relationship between public space, architecture, state infrastructure, gender and sexual identity, asking viewers to question what public space looks like.

They will flee like chaff scattered by the wind or like dust whirling before a storm was produced as a commission by British artists Hannah Quinlan & Rosie Hastings for 1856, with proceeds going towards future programming.

This edition of two prints brings together the Michelangelo sketch, Archers Shooting at a Herm, with a scene of modern revolt against a hostile white police force, depicting the tense relationship between states of power and the LGBTQ+ community. Quinlan & Hastings’ diptych represents an unruly clash of registers such as the disciplining power of the state, here depicted in a moment of crisis, and the rebellious energy of the people who protest and occupy public spaces.

A special edition signed and numbered by the artists can be purchased directly from 1856, details can be found here.