Queer Constellations: Reflections on Curatorial and Creative Practice at the Museum of English Rural Life

Abstract

Drawing from our independent disciplines of queer theory and photographic practice, this paper examines the creative and curatorial practices, and the theoretical frameworks that structure them, in relation to Queer Constellations: Artistic Trespass and Rural Gay Histories, an art exhibition that took place at the Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) between July and September 2021.

As the exhibition took place within a museum whose focus is grounded in the practices and culture of agricultural life, our paper explores themes of ‘dis-orientation’ as a form that queerness takes within such spaces, asking the question: is there queerness in rural life? This is then reflected upon through a participating artists’ practice and how photographs can function as a form of blending of worlds.