“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask,
and he will tell you the truth”
Oscar Wilde
It is hard to believe that
Balaclava.Q is a mere three months old. I have watched this site grow from
nothing more than the ideas, convictions, and passion of one man, the artist
Stiofan O’Ceallaigh. Stiofan is a human dynamo, he never stops. He is a
constant cascading waterfall of ideas, projects, plans, all of them positive,
all of them connective, collaborative, all of them empowering, and all with the
art community their heart and centre.
There are fundamental shifts
occurring in our society, we are a world in transition. We are moving ever
towards a world of connectivity, of groupings, of support and cooperation. It
may not appear so on the surface, but the foundations of a different world, a
more connected and collective world is being formed.
Much of the shift is being
fuelled by the internet. People are beginning to understand that there is more
to the phenomenon of the net than online shopping. There is a larger picture
forming, and that larger picture has to do with connection and
self-empowerment.
The art community, as it always does,
is reflecting and in many ways leading the phenomenon. There is a palpable buzz
of excitement about the possibilities of real connection between artists, art
groups, art platforms. Spearheading that excitement of possibility is
Balaclava.Q, and Stiofan O’Ceallaigh. The following interview with Stiofan is
about that excitement of possibility, turned into probability.
Balaclava.Q featured artist: Bex Ilsley
Where did the idea for Balaclava.Q
come from?
My passion is people, my religion
is people that is who I am, how I see life. For 14 years I worked with people,
mostly artists. I created platforms for artists, in many different guises,
different shapes and forms, different types of projects.
After that 14 years I made the
decision to go back to my roots, to go back to being a working artist,
something I had always been, but never really had the time for.
Being a working artist again
meant that I became increasingly aware of what was going on within the art
world, and there was definitely something happening, and it was happening on
social media, regarding artists and their work. I noticed that more and more
artists were sending out the message that their work was being systematically removed
from various social media sites for no apparent reason.
I really felt the need to do
something, to help in some practical way. There were a lot of artists out there
creating really great work, but it was not being seen because it was in
constant battle with social media censors.
I had heard about artists having
duplicate profiles on social media sites, having three or four profiles on others.
Running along those lines I thought a great way of not allowing the powers that
be to keep a track of you, or the algorithm to be more exact, would be to wear
a mask, that’s where the balaclava came in.
So the balaclava isn’t about hiding?
No, definitely not, and it is
certainly not about shame. Shame was something I really didn’t want this
project to be about. I really didn’t want people to think that Balaclava.Q was
all about wearing a mask because you are ashamed of who you are. No, it’s not.
It is about emancipation, it is
about freedom, it is about connectivity, it is about relationships. It is about
opportunities, giving artists opportunities.
It is about an approach to art
that is activism, emancipation, anonymity, transgression, identity,
identification, subversive, subliminal, futuristic, dystopian, bringing all
this and more together and allowing artists the space to reshape it through
Balaclava.Q. That is just wonderful to watch, and wonderful to be a part of,
and of course, there is no censorship, which as previously stated, so many
artists suffer under. This is a free and liberating space for art and artists,
and that is fundamental to what Balaclava.Q is about, freedom and the art of
anonymity. It is about taking down the borders, and enjoying ultimate diversity,
in whatever form that takes.
So what is the definition of Queer?
I went from being gay to queer.
To me it is a spiritual and political stance in that you consider yourself to
be ‘other’. The ‘Q’ on the end of Balaclava.Q obviously represents the word
queer. Queer is the new punk, Queer is a punk aesthetic, it comes from punk.
Twenty or thirty years ago,
considering yourself as ‘other’ would have been difficult, isolating even. But
now, with the internet, finding others like yourself, finding connections, it’s
unbelievably fast and easy to find your community.
To me, Queer is about trying to
push things, creating new ideas for new realities, new perspectives, taking a
view of the world where anything can be anything. It is only when you start
labelling those ‘anything’s’ that it becomes its own construct, and then it
gets walled in.
So –
to me - Queer is a non-binary, non-label ‘other’. What you do with your sexual bits
is of no concern to the project, or to me, it’s more about how you identify and
what you want to say.
Balaclava.Q featured artist: Wilhelm Vincent
You talk a lot about diversity
regarding Balaclava.Q How important is that to you?
I am really, really passionate
about diversity, and passionate that Balaclava.Q reflects the full diversity of
who we are. As long as the face is obscured, the work can be about anything,
and can include anyone, there are no exclusions and there never will be, I
would encourage anyone to submit work to the site, and I would really love to
hear from them. The stance taken is entirely up to the artist, so it can be political,
sexual, fetishistic, dramatic, whatever you want it to be, it can be. The only
real proviso is that you obscure the face, everything else is up to you the
artist. I am keen to have a female, trans or
non-binary perspective on the project and would welcome submissions from those
communities. If you are out there, reading this then get in touch.
So where are you at the moment with
Balaclava.Q?
Balaclava.Q is constantly
evolving, and it is the artists that are submitting work to Balaclava.Q who are
evolving the project. It’s already starting to reshape itself as it moves
along. That’s really exciting for me, and what is even more exciting is that
many artists are now creating new works specifically for the online gallery. So
we are going to start having exclusives for Balaclava.Q, which is really cool.
Some artists have started to look
at the idea of the face itself as a mask, how you can use emotions and
expressions to hide how you are really feeling. Some artists are really getting
conceptual and metaphysical about it as well. So all these different artists,
different genders, all these different sexualities may well reshape the tagline
of the project.
So things are getting really busy
for you.
Really, really busy, lots of
stuff coming in all the time. I am also getting a lot of positive feedback from
people saying how great the website is looking, how cool the project is. What
is really exciting is that artists are starting to take ownership of their
galleries within Balaclava.Q, but also artists are spreading the news that the
site is a really important project and platform, that the artists featured are
exciting, I find that really inspirational.
I want this project to be
constantly redefined by the artists that take part. I realise now, from my own
journey through this project that the parameters of what is queer is constantly
in flux. What is queer today will not be queer tomorrow. It’s more than present, it’s omnipresent, and
is constantly changing shape, and that is what I want this project to do, and
that is what I feel is happening.
You talk often
of Balaclava.Q fostering connectivity and relationships. Have you formed any
yourself through working with the site?
Yes indeed. I have made really meaningful
connections with a number of the artists that have been featured on the site. A
good example of how Balaclava.Q is working, is the relationship I have formed
with the artist Johann N’Dale. I have done a call out for a magazine that he
wants to get off the ground and running, called Fuck Hate. He said that it was because of the Balaclava.Q project
that he created Fuck Hate. It is so
cool when that happens.
But I have also formed a number
of relationships outside of Balaclava.Q that have then become connected to the
site. A case in point is yourself.
We have been working together as
a team on the forthcoming Inspirational 13. It has been really great to be part
of a new direction for the Inspirational publication. It’s a really exciting
time for both Balaclava.Q and Inspirational, and to have us both connected,
both collaborating with each other’s projects, that can only make us stronger.
So what about the future?
The first of the in-depth artist
interviews has just taken place with the artist Leon Headstone. The interviewer
is California-based queer art theorist and historian Robert Summers, I am honoured to have Robert on board and his
contribution to Balaclava.Q so far has been immense. These interviews will be a
regular monthly event.
Another thing that is definitely
coming up soon will be a call out for new collaborators. As Balaclava.Q grows,
it needs to bring in new people, with new skills. Check the facebook page
regularly for that and more.
There will also be a
comprehensive links section for the website, which I am working on at the moment.
That will include links with the individual artist websites, and links to a
range of interesting and relevant sites.
An important motivator for the
project is the fight against injustice, especially when it comes to the LGBTQIA
community, the level of violence and hurt that it regularly suffers from is
totally unacceptable. A lot of the partners that I am going to be working with
in the future, with regards to this project, will have the core aims of addressing
inequality, homophobia, hate, racism.
I have also been offered
exhibition space by the Lesbian and Gay Foundation in Manchester. It is an
exhibition that has a theme of stigma and HIV, and will coincide with World
Aids Day (December 1).
And finally?
When I started this project it
was all about encouraging artists to feel empowered, to say what they wanted to
say, and then to find other artists to resonate with, connect with, create
opportunities with. That is what Balaclava.Q is doing and will continue to do.
What is really exciting is that
it feels like the whole art community is now also beginning to see the power of
connections, relationships, collaborations. That is where we are going as a
community, I can feel it, and that is definitely where Balaclava.Q already is.
To find out more about the
Balaclava.Q project, or to make a submission as an artist, visit:
To find out more about the artist
Stiofan O’Ceallaigh, visit:
You can
contact Stiofan direct at:
The artist: Stiofan O'Ceallaigh
This is important -- both politically and aesthetically, which are intertwined -- work. As an art historian who does queer work in the discipline, and in promoting queer and feminist artists, I find Balaclava.Q very exciting and rewarding -- and as a site for research and ideas for others. This site, this gallery, if you will, can aid other artists in thinking about art, politics, identity, gender, and sexuality in wholly other ways. Balaclava.Q is something that will reverberate for some time.
ReplyDeletePowerful Words Robert. Thank you for your support and kindness.
DeleteThank you John. This is amazing!
ReplyDelete