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"GOD is watching you , Every second of every day"  David Hoyle 

Grid , Situated in the heart of Brownhills is the only thriving gay bar in Town , "Giving you the ooh ahh sensation across the nation "

Snatching wigs, Grid is open 24/7 "because there's always time for a cocktail"

so head on down and  you will feel "much Better"

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Final Grid 

The only gay bar to take your stereotypes and shove them right back up your arse, challenging society and deconstructing stereotypes.

Grid: Gay Related Immune Deficiency 

 

In early 1981, doctors in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco simultaneously began reporting strange symptoms in some of their gay male patients. All the patients had compromised immune function. At first the strange new disease was termed a "gay cancer," since it primarily struck gay men. The radical right and social conservatives trumpeted the illness as "God's judgement" on gay people.

Neil Miller, Out of the Past: Gay and Lesbian History from 1869 to the Present (New York: Vintage Books, 1995).

Soon the Name would later be changed to AIDS as doctors realised that the Disease was not just isolated within the gay community. however due to this initial attack Gay men are put under the same category to give blood along with sex workers and forever hold the stigma of aids.

Artist behind bars , The horse hospital June 2016 , Kitty Finer 

 

Kitty Finer is an entertainer and artist who has performed both improv and planned performances."Artist behind bars" was devised as a way of bringing artists together who are also interested in spontaneous structures of hospitality and the part time roll of bar tending.

Maquette (Drinking Alley) 2020 Model 

(tissue box , tissue paper ,paint)

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Upon researching artist behind bars I wanted to give an experience as to what it was like growing up in the LGBT community and what expectations I had after I came out of the closet, as being gay, from society.

As soon as I did step foot out of the closet I was bombarded with stereotypes in how I should act ... was I being too gay or was I acting too straight to be gay. 

I was labelled and for a short time in my life people only saw my sexuality and not me as a person. 

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 Original sketch for installation for courtyard of University 

Work in Progress

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Panel 1

Broken fencing panels were used to create the bar. I wanted the aesthetic to look weather and worn down to show the wearing down of stereotypes in the Gay community. The colour pink was then chosen as a base colour as it is classed as a feminine colour and very closely associated to feminine gay men 

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Panel 2

Both panels were essentially left to rot and decay with of course a little help from a hammer to increase the size of the holes and speed up the process.

Using an electric sander allowed the wood to become smooth giving the spray paint a sound surface to adhere to.

However, I encountered problems with the spray paint I used. Gloss spray paint was the only paint available to me, unfortunately, it was not conducive to a tidy finish, as the paint ran. 

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Final bar using the most effective panels 

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Creation of Fire Pit

Tyres sprayed with fire retardant spray with built in wooden structure to hold the metal pit away from tires to stop any melting.

Wall pieces 

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Created from the wood chippings of the panels. Glued with adhehsive industrial glue to ensure it would not fall apart in any weather 

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Two recycled trailer wheels 

(silver and black)

Recycled metal

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 Bar During Day  

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 Bar During Night 

 

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