Dreaming Of Home
Gemma curated Dreaming of Home at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art. The group exhibition group featured a line-up of international artists centered around varying notions of queer and trans domesticity. Taking Catherine Opie’s 1993 photograph Self-Portrait/Cutting as its starting point to highlight the dissonances experienced by queer people in their desires to live and thrive, alongside the routine restrictions imposed by wider society.
“I vividly remember seeing Catherine Opie’s photographs when I first moved to London 15 years ago shortly after coming out. Seeing Cathy’s images of her community, which reflected how I felt about myself, had a deep impact on me. The critical acclaim and global exhibition of her work seemed to offer not only visibility but an endorsement and space for opportunity that felt at odds with mainstream culture. Cathy’s work represents, celebrates, and honours LGBTQIA+ bodies, particularly butch, dyke, trans masc identities, in a way that continues to feel radical, even 30 years later.”
— Gemma Rolls-Bentley
