Unit 15: London Project
This is Don’t Ask, Just Come.
It is a proposal for a living archive celebrating the cultural and historical importance of Department H, a monthly drag and fetish event that has existed in Tokyo, Japan since the 1990s.
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London Aspect Statement
Prior to my project’s current realisation as a living archive, I had envisioned a physical, performance-based exhibition of Japanese drag in an existing London drag venue. I wanted to connect the Tokyo and London drag scenes in an effort to assist intercultural communication between the two sister cities and their communities. My goal was to promote drag performance artists outside of their locale and facilitate an inspiring, engaging exchange between existing communities.
The impact of the global pandemic, and its resultant lockdown measures, made this goal much more difficult, especially in regard to the transportation of performers and exhibits. In my continued research I stumbled across an event called Department H and its subsequent virtualisation as a livestream (also resultant of lockdown measures). I was fascinated by its ability to provide a safe, community-led space for underground cultures, predominately drag and fetish. In my experiences the Tokyo drag and fetish scenes are small and somewhat hidden, while London has a strong, welcoming drag community, but very few options for the exploration of fetish culture in safe spaces. I saw an opportunity to continue with my goal to help connect and inspire drag communities from across the two cities. I felt that in the face of COVID-19, the cultural exchange could be strengthened by the use of a more open and accessible platform than a physical exhibition: the internet. Which is why Don’t Ask, Just Come is proposed as a publicly accessible platform initially targeted toward Londoners. It is enabling and encouraging of self-education and self-exploration inspired by a diverse, vibrant event in Tokyo and use of the archive as a site of research, education and cultural exchange.
While the initial aim of connecting the Tokyo and London communities was retained, the project evolved to consider fetish and include community-building exercises. This is manifest in the creation of a digital residency that sits within the archive. In which, a community in parallel to Department H will be nurtured through the selection of a London-based artist for the first residency. The artist will work with Department H and its performance artist community to develop their own practise and create a dialogue between the UK and Japan. Their artwork will respond to the relationship they develop with drag and fetish, and the nuances of the two cities' distinct scenes. The artist will then nominate their successor from their own local network to build a self-selecting system of likeminded individuals who can meet physically and discuss their artwork in response to the residency. Thus, building bridges between two cities through the facilitation and strengthening of community.