Gabrielle MacIntosh

We Are Everywhere

"We Are Everywhere" is a three part screen printing series that explores lesbian isolation, longing, and identity through the use of negative space and Queer signalling. Queer signalling refers to the subtle ways Queer people communicate identity to one another through symbols, styling and coded forms of dress. These symbols emerged historically as a means of recognition while ensuring safety and subtlety, and they continue to hold cultural significance today. This series also served as early explorations of style for my thesis film, “You Can’t Stay Here”.

“Carabiners, rings and work boots are all long-standing accessories within lesbian culture that function as both practical objects and coded markers of identity. Many of these objects were made popular by working class lesbians in the 1970’s. Through absence, silhouette, and signalling, "We Are Everywhere" focuses on the ways Queer identity is simultaneously unseen and seen. The series considers how desire, belonging, and recognition are often communicated through what is left unsaid, whether that be through objects or gestures; there is something very powerful in the Queer community's ability to find and recognize lived experience without ever saying a word.”