LGBTQ+ History Month 2024: Caroline Glover on the power of collaborative art

This LGBTQ+ History Month, we interviewed LCC graduate Caroline Glover, who recently graduated from MA Design for Social Innovation and Sustainable Futures. We caught up with her to explore her 'Colossal Queer Cape’ project which saw members of the LGBTQ+ community come together to collaborate on an elaborate cape which celebrates what queer joy means to them.

Can you talk us through the journey of the ‘Colossal Queer Cape project’, particularly the moment you pitched the idea to support the Wishbone drag tent at the Green Man festival?  

I have been going to Green Man as a visitor for many years. It’s such a friendly festival and I quickly got to know lots of the organisers and regulars. I helped produce the first year of the Wishbone tent which was utterly joyous. To have a queer positive space at a festival where you are free to be silly and individual and exactly how you are, without worry, is incredible. I had many hair-brained ideas, from drag queen sew-alongs on sewing machines powered by pedal bikes to Drag Race style competitions. But ultimately, I wanted much more community involvement. My course taught me so much about how valuable it is to bring a community together to co-create something special. In this instance, each patch represented the myriad of different fingerprints that exist in the community, we are as a community quite literally a woven quilt of experiences, expressions and identities. Going on to format those experiences in the form of a fantastically camp cape, almost as an act of defiance against an often antagonistic world is ultimate empowerment. The cape was unveiled on the final night of the festival on stage at the Wishbone Tent by one of the performers - Todd. The cape was an excellent exercise in promoting the tent and further encouraging the queer community to come together, which we are excellent at, given the chance!

The project involved a collaborative craft exercise where participants designed patches to express their interpretation of "What does queer joy mean to you?" How did the responses shape the overall narrative of the project?  

The beauty of a project like this is all in the process. It tells a story. There are so many factors as to what the output will look like and what sorts of messages and feelings the cape will contain. It’s a monument to those people, that time and that place. The cape reflects themes such a solidarity, chosen family, trans rights, and sexual positivity. I was fortunate in the timing of the festival versus the project, that it gave me plenty of time for reflection and further creativity. I spent a lot of time thinking about the themes expressed on the cape and mapped them, to then create and craft a speculative fiction of a world called ‘Queerlandia’. A place where there are shamans in the form of drag queens (and one drag king) who represent the struggles of the queer community and act as sort of mentors or ‘mothers’ in Ball culture. I had a lot of fun with this story so I also held a further workshop in order to explore further. It’s an exercise in being silly and creative which is also anchored in an important message.

Hosting workshops over several days, the LGBTQ+ community and allies came together to create this ‘community-made queer cape’. Could you share some memorable moments from these workshops and the sense of collaboration that emerged during the crafting process?  

We definitely had instances of people making festival friendships which was very gratifying as a result of crafting next to each other. But over and above this it meant that later, when they might be having a dance or watching a drag act in the Wishbone, they already knew each other. In that respect it acted to create that sense of community. Moreover, lots of the drag acts made patches so there was an intersection between the two things. Some people reported that they found the process like a meditation and got lost in the crafting process. Moments like a mum persuading a son to design a patch, he was shy and initially didn’t want to do it. But that sweet interaction of a mum’s affirmation of her son’s identity was lovely to witness and in a way be a part of. There were also lots of funny, liberatory moments where people could express themselves fully. A woman passionately told me how she felt that “all of the kink has been taken out of Pride” and we need to reclaim our sexuality.

Reflecting on the experience, what impact did the Colossal Queer Cape project have on fostering a sense of community and celebration within the queer and ally participants at the Green Man festival?  

It’s unusual to find a spot at a festival where you can take half an hour out and muse on a question that is vested in your identity. Some people took this and made comical or light-hearted solutions and others more cerebral and full of feeling. That was what was so wonderful about it. During my analysis of the success of the project, I asked for feedback from a number of the participants. One of them reported back to me that the cape had a lot more meaning for the community than any Pride march could ever have, which I felt very grateful for. I think participation is key and people want to express themselves and be heard and there’s a sort of catharsis in this.

Are there LGBTQ+ historic figures, or people making history now, who inspire your work?

Barbara Kruger has always been an influence for her bold graphic reflections on the intersection of women and nature, culture and the male gaze. The women of Greenham Common, who protested against the presence of nuclear weapons and more broadly against patriarchal colonialist power structures. It’s so inspiring to remember how important collective action is and how powerful we are if we are united. The artist Jill Posner who lived in lesbian squats together with her friends in the 80s would graffiti over sexist billboards and photograph them, I just love the joyful disobedience of this. She then went on to become the photo editor of lesbian erotica magazine ‘On Our backs’. All those queers out there who are using their platforms responsibly ‘representing’ and de-stigmatising queerness, from the Queer Eye guys to Janelle Monae and Elliott Page. Kae Tempest’s writing and spoken word performance is incredible, and as well as ‘representing’ with their queerness, they express what it is to be human and so in that way, they have a broader appeal beyond the queer community. I also love the writing of Carmen Maria Machado and Brontez Purnell but for very different reasons!

As an artist and organiser of this project, what insights or learnings have you gained from this collaborative project. How might it influence your future artistic endeavours?

I think from a participatory arts point of view, the learning is to keep it simple. People want to have fun, especially in a festival setting, and don’t want to feel intimidated or be preached to. To establish an open, queer-friendly space for the process to happen is the most important thing. The process is therefore in many ways more important than the finished item. That’s why I think the making of video is needed to be able to understand the project in context. The second thing would be documentation, in every way you can, video recordings, audio recording, voice notes to yourself, and thirdly to ask people whether they’re happy to be contacted so that you are able to evaluate the project and improve upon your methods.

I’m very keen on repeating the exercise at Green Man 2024 but making it different. Maybe we’ll ask people to make a patch towards a colossal queer pair of pantaloons! Watch this space.

You can follow Caroline Glover at @colossalqueercape.