The film has now been acquired by the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, where it will serve as a tool to revisit the effects of the current government’s austerity cuts, as well as to examine queer histories, asking poignant questions of who is and isn’t given institutional space societally. The importance of their directory lies in its ability to function as a public resource, which is part of the artists’ intention for the work: to consider the future of how we archive and rematerialise LGBTQ+ histories. The five-and-a-half-hour film methodically documents these spaces – including gay bars that have now closed, such as the Hoist in London. Hannah Quinlan and Rosie Hastings: ‘Our work poses questions that bridge the gap between the past, present and future of queer culture in the UK’ The collaborative duo talk about their film UK Gay Bar Directory, which is showing at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool as part of its exhibition Coming Out: Sexuality, Gender and IdentityĪrtistic duo Hannah Quinlan and Rosie Hastings assembled footage of more than 100 gay bars across the UK for their 2016 video UK Gay Bar Directory.
