Slipping away

The first of our 5 mural trail in collaboration with bankside_london, which officially launches to the public today.

We worked with cbloxx_nomad from nomad.clan to retell the Frost Fair story through street art. Jay's piece is a triptych, documenting the surreal carnival atmosphere of the Frost Fairs, with inebriated revellers drinking Purl and Elephants walking across the ice. 

And then finally the third subject, a gender non confirming person, a figure personally entangled with Jay, who has been exploring their own gender journey. 

Jay notes: 'in my work I have been exploring trans existence in ancient history ... our presence is documented in British history since the 14th century. 

The scarcity of knowledge is thanks to tactical erasure in written record under British colonisation. In this chapter, gender queer individuals were often found in the arts, in 'freak' shows, sex work etc, most commonly referred to at the time as cross dressers.

When asked who is on the photo:
“I used a couple of vintage photo I found of a crossdresser from the 1840s ish, though I think they may have been american.. I styled them out to look more fitting of 1814 Britain.”