Black Queer Histories through Love and Resistance
11 October 2024- 19 January 2025
Terrace Rooms and Courtyard Rooms
Ages 16+
Pay What You Can
www.somersethouse.org.uk/whats-on/making-a-rukus
With one month to go before the opening of Making a rukus! Black Queer Histories through Love and Resistance, Somerset House invites visitors to explore the playful, radical and disruptive world of the rukus! Federation, an art project and living archive exploring contemporary Black LGBTQIA+ cultural and political history.
The brand-new exhibition, curated by artist, filmmaker and co-founder of rukus! Federation, Topher Campbell, explores Black Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans creativity, activism, community and pride through over 200 objects including archive materials, contemporary artworks and brand-new commissions, celebrating the work of Black LGBTQIA+ pioneers and artists since the 1970s.
The exhibition demonstrates that the rukus! archive is not a work of static historical documentation, but an ongoing and vital series of political and artistic interventions that bears witness to the joy, friendship, resistance, and creative endeavors of Black LGBTQIA+ people in Britain. This will be explored further through a newly announced public programme as well as a brand-new film commission, more details of which can be found below.
Inside the Exhibition
The exhibition begins by exploring how an artistic collaboration between two friends, exhibition curator Topher Campbell and pioneering photographer Ajamu, led to the creation of the rukus! Federation. The Homecoming: A Short Film about Ajamu, one of curator Topher Campbell’s most iconic works of film, of which Ajamu is the subject, will be presented alongside unseen behind-the-scenes items from the shoot. Further examples of video and photography work that span Ajamu and Topher’s creative collaboration will be on display, as well as newspaper clippings and unseen items and photos from their personal archives, telling the story of how rukus! was created through art, activism and friendship.
The second room of the exhibition celebrates the relationships and collaboration of Black LGBTQIA+ individuals and organisations whose work make up the rukus! archive and whose contributions have helped to build the contemporary community of Black LGBTQIA+ people in Britain. Ephemera and objects including minutes of meetings, posters, flyers, notes, magazine articles and clothing tell the story of how Black LGBTQIA+ artists and activists did and continue to collectively create space for themselves whilst resisting the twin hostilities of homophobia and racism. Amongst those whose work is featured are poet Dorothea Smart, playwright Mojisola Adebayo, activist Ted Walker Brown, writer Dirg Aab Richards, therapist Dennis Carney, publisher Paul Boakye, academic Valerie Mason John and photographer Rotimi Fani-Kayode.
Room three will invite visitors inside the clubs and music that were created by and for Black LGBTQIA+ people, spaces where community was built not just through words but through bold celebrations of bodies and desire. Artist, performer and former Somerset House Studios associate artist Evan Ifekoya has been commissioned to present a restaging of a body of work - A Score, A Groove, A Phantom, A rukus! - an interactive installation to create an immersive club-like space for visitors to explore. The soundscape includes audio of members of the community across generations speaking about their formative experiences in clubs, taken from interviews conducted by Topher. Objects will also be displayed inside the installation - from photographs and HIV prevention materials, to flyers and fashion - acting as testament to the strength and liberation found in Black LGBTQIA+ club culture. Materials from iconic clubs including Bootylicious, Pressure Zone, OFFDAHOOK, Stallions, Black Perverts Network and many more will feature, demonstrating how clubs created their own rhythms, trends and languages.
The final part of the exhibition will showcase the videos and films that are in the rukus! archive, including Sharing Tongues, a series of interviews exploring the oral histories of Black LGBTQIA+ people in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool and In This Our Lives - The Reunion by Topher Campbell, which documents a reunion of the original participants in the first and only national gathering of Black gay men in the UK at the 1987 National Black Gay Men’s Conference.
Throughout the run of exhibition Somerset House will be adorned with a rukus! flag, designed by multidisciplinary artist Jacob V Joyce.
Public Programme
In Conversation: Sola Olulode and Kamari Romeo
12 October
The exhibition will coincide with the return of the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, the world's only international art fair dedicated to contemporary African art and its diaspora, which comes to Somerset House for its 12th edition in London. 1-54 and Somerset House will co-host a talk inspired by the Making a rukus! exhibition, with speakers Sola Olulode and Kamari Romeo discussing Black Trans creativity.
rukus! Upgrade Yourself Takeover
24 October
Upgrade Yourself, Somerset House’s programme dedicated to supporting aspiring creatives aged 18-30 to make meaningful connections with like-minded individuals and network with industry professionals, will take over Making a rukus! for one night only.
Attendees will gain free and exclusive access to the exhibition and a chance to engage in creative workshops, tours, talks and networking activities around the exhibition’s themes. Tours of the exhibition will be conducted by curator Topher Campbell, with other contributors including author of Revolutionary Acts: Love & Brotherhood in Black Gay Britain, Jason Okundaye, Black Queer-led multidisciplinary arts collective, The Blacker the Berry; photographer, writer and director Myah Jeffers and DJ Emma Korantema.
rukus! Short film
Premiering on Channel on 11 October
Channel.somersethouse.org.uk
Somerset House has commissioned a brand-new short-film from documentary filmmaker Andy Mundy-Castle. The film focuses on the concept of spaces, explored through an intergenerational conversation between curator Topher Campbell and artist Evan Ifekoya.
Curator Tours
November 7, November 16, November 28
Curator tours for small groups will occur three times throughout the run of the exhibition, allowing visitors to hear directly from the curator and founder of the rukus! archive Topher Campbell. Having worked on the project over two decades, Topher will delve deeper into the stories behind the exhibition.
Relaxed Sessions
October 25, November 2
Relaxed sessions, for visitors who would like to explore the exhibition in a calm and quiet environment, will be held twice. To ensure the exhibition is as accessible as possible, including for people with autism and other neurodiverse needs, as well as their friends, families and carers, adjustments are made including limiting the number of visitors for the session and lowering noise levels.
ENDS
Special thanks to the London Archives for their generous support on lending archival material from the rukus! Federation Limited.
NOTES TO EDITORS
Press and Image enquiries: press@somersethouse.org.uk
Website: www.somersethouse.org.uk
Somerset House Facebook: www.facebook.com/SomersetHouse
Somerset House X (Twitter) & Instagram: @SomersetHouse
Exhibition Content Guidance
This exhibition addresses important issues around sensual identities and lived experience. Content includes and references: nudity, strong language, HIV, discrimination, and sexually explicit imagery.
Exhibition is not suitable for visitors under 16 years of age. If you require any further information, please speak to a member of the Visitor Experience team.
About Topher Campbell
Topher Campbell's 25+ year output spans broadcasting, theatre, performance, writing, experimental film and site-specific work. His focus has been on sexuality, masculinity, race, human rights, memoir and climate change. Topher was abandoned as a child at 1 and half years and grew up in care. His background has informed his work in Black and Black Queer placemaking through a philosophy of radical homelessness.
Alumni of the Regional Theatre Young Directors Scheme and former Artistic Director and CEO of The Redroom Theatre and Film Company, Topher has directed numerous award-winning productions in theatre and film over the last two decades. He has been awarded the Jerwood Directors Award 2011, the Derek Jarman Prospect Cottage Residency 2022, Pink News Broadcast of the Year Award 2021 and received an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Sussex in 2017.
In 2000 he co-founded rukus! Federation a Black Queer arts collective with photographer Ajamu. This culminated in the internationally recognised rukus! Archive currently held in the London Metropolitan Archives.
Topher’s documentaries Una Marson: Our Lost Caribbean Voice and Moments That Shaped Queer Black Britain are available to view on BBC I player and Sky respectively. His next artwork is a commission by Tate Modern exploring Black Queer realities.
About Somerset House
Step Inside, Think Outside
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