I’d love to see this rolled out on buildings across the city, but Bluecoat Display Centre’s window on College Lane is a good start.
Simon Dredge is an artist with an impressive catalogue, making work that’s as ready for sale as it is for major collections. There’s an authority to his work that’s hard to put your finger on, but it makes you take notice, and take time.
For context, in case I’m the only one who saw this this way, his plates at Bluecoat Display Centre have the visual language of blue heritage plaques. And while those plaques are generally granted by Historic England, or regional bodies, there’s nothing stopping anyone from creating their own.
Simon Dredge’s plates have the same presence as a heritage plaque, but with significantly more flair, and undeniably more passion.
National Handbag, the centrepiece of this window display at Bluecoat Display Centre, celebrates a handful of people, past and present, who have contributed to the LGTBQ+ community in Liverpool.
BONA, the text scrawled across the centre of one plate, and its title, is more than a celebration of the people who made Liverpool a better place to be gay. It’s a celebration of the wider culture. Taken from Polari, Bona, was, and still is one of the most used words from this receding coded language, used to identify and protect gay people in populated space.
Today, physical attacks on LGBTQ+ communities are still happening, and online violence and abuse adds a more constant pressure, but acceptance is also far greater, and persecution is rarer than it was.
The plates, simple as they are, tell that story of Pride from its beginnings to now.
It’s a simple display, and I hope we see more of it in Liverpool soon.
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Pride in Liverpool by Simon Dredge was at Bluecoat Display Centre from 1st-31st July 2024. Words, Patrick Kirk-Smith