No Such Thing as Society 1980–1990

Linder, She/She  1981, printed 2007

She/She consists of fourteen black and white photographs, nine of which are portraits of Linder and the remaining five are photographs of short sections of text written in a typewriter font. The prints are presented in black frames, usually displayed in two horizontal rows of seven to be viewed in the sequence top row left to right, bottom row left to right, with the text pages interspersing the portraits. The photographs of Linder are by the Swiss photographer Christine Birrer, with whom Linder collaborated at this time on a number of different projects. The work was first produced in a booklet Pickpocket: SheShe 1981 to coincide with the release of a six-track cassette tape, Pickpocket, by the group Ludus, of which Linder was a member. The booklet format was slightly different to that originally conceived, and as it has now been printed and editioned. The fragments of text are written by Linder and taken from three of the songs on the cassette, Mutilate, The Fool and Mouthpiece. They refer to the themes of hiding, searching and finding evoked in the images.

Sunil Gupta, Guy & Brian, London  1984, printed 2018

This series of black and white portraits features gay and lesbian couples from Sunil Gupta’s social circles in London and Newcastle. Called Lovers: Ten Years On, the project was shot over a period of two years from 1984–6, following the end of Gupta’s own ten-year relationship. Reminiscent of traditional family portraits, the photographs show couples in affectionate poses in their own living spaces. Prejudicial coverage of the HIV and AIDS epidemic in the 1980s threatened to turn public opinion against the acceptance of queer relationships, which were portrayed as ‘sexually deviant’. In contrast to these offensive depictions of queer love, the people in Lovers: Ten Years On are often presented as quite ordinary, middle-class, professional couples. Many of the people photographed would later lose their lives to HIV and AIDS.

Gallery label, January 2025

Sunil Gupta, Emmanuel & David, London  1984, printed 2018

This series of black and white portraits features gay and lesbian couples from Sunil Gupta’s social circles in London and Newcastle. Called Lovers: Ten Years On, the project was shot over a period of two years from 1984–6, following the end of Gupta’s own ten-year relationship. Reminiscent of traditional family portraits, the photographs show couples in affectionate poses in their own living spaces. Prejudicial coverage of the HIV and AIDS epidemic in the 1980s threatened to turn public opinion against the acceptance of queer relationships, which were portrayed as ‘sexually deviant’. In contrast to these offensive depictions of queer love, the people in Lovers: Ten Years On are often presented as quite ordinary, middle-class, professional couples. Many of the people photographed would later lose their lives to HIV and AIDS.

Gallery label, January 2025

Sunil Gupta, Karl & Daniel, London  1985, printed 2018

This series of black and white portraits features gay and lesbian couples from Sunil Gupta’s social circles in London and Newcastle. Called Lovers: Ten Years On, the project was shot over a period of two years from 1984–6, following the end of Gupta’s own ten-year relationship. Reminiscent of traditional family portraits, the photographs show couples in affectionate poses in their own living spaces. Prejudicial coverage of the HIV and AIDS epidemic in the 1980s threatened to turn public opinion against the acceptance of queer relationships, which were portrayed as ‘sexually deviant’. In contrast to these offensive depictions of queer love, the people in Lovers: Ten Years On are often presented as quite ordinary, middle-class, professional couples. Many of the people photographed would later lose their lives to HIV and AIDS.

Gallery label, January 2025

Sunil Gupta, Roger & Steve, London  1984, printed 2018

This series of black and white portraits features gay and lesbian couples from Sunil Gupta’s social circles in London and Newcastle. Called Lovers: Ten Years On, the project was shot over a period of two years from 1984–6, following the end of Gupta’s own ten-year relationship. Reminiscent of traditional family portraits, the photographs show couples in affectionate poses in their own living spaces. Prejudicial coverage of the HIV and AIDS epidemic in the 1980s threatened to turn public opinion against the acceptance of queer relationships, which were portrayed as ‘sexually deviant’. In contrast to these offensive depictions of queer love, the people in Lovers: Ten Years On are often presented as quite ordinary, middle-class, professional couples. Many of the people photographed would later lose their lives to HIV and AIDS.

Gallery label, January 2025

Mona Hatoum, Performance Still  1985–95

Mona Hatoum first became known in the early 1980s for a series of performance and video pieces which used her own body as a site for exploring the fragility and strength of the human condition under duress. Performance Still 1985 records one of three street performances which Hatoum carried out in Brixton for the Roadworks exhibition organised in 1985 by the Brixton Artists Collective. The performance consisted of the artist walking barefoot through the streets of Brixton for nearly an hour, with Doc Marten boots, usually worn by both police and skinheads, attached to her ankles by their laces. Performance Still, printed and published ten years later turns the original documentary photograph of the performance into a work in its own right, and has therefore come to identify this aspect of Hatoum’s practice.

Gallery label, October 2013

Rita Donagh, Long Meadow  1982

The conflict in the north of Ireland in the 1970s and 1980s saw violent acts by both Unionists and Republicans perpetrated in mainland Britain and Northern Ireland. One of the key sites during those times was the Maze Prison in County Antrim, formerly known as Long Kesh or ‘Long Meadow’, the title of Donagh’s painting. Paramilitary prisoners were housed in the eight prison ‘H Blocks’, projected by Donagh in perspective onto a square canvas, echoing the square plan of a single cell block. The aerial view and the subtle rendering of the light convey the feeling of an air raid.

Gallery label, September 2016

Derek Jarman, Dead Man’s Eyes  1987

Denzil Forrester MBE, Three Wicked Men  1982

Three Wicked Men narrates the story of Winston Rose, a childhood friend of Denzil Forrester who died under contentious circumstances while in police custody in 1981. The stiff, uniformed figures of the two policemen flank Rose, seeming to drain the colour from their surroundings. Occasional flashes of bright activity interrupt from the street. Forrester belongs to a generation of Black British artists who use figurative painting to depict racial and social injustice. Working from the outset of the Thatcher government in the early 1980s, his dynamic and crowded scenes are inspired by his time spent working in London reggae and dub clubs.

Gallery label, January 2025

Rita Keegan, Homage to Frida Kahlo  1987

In this self-portrait, Rita Keegan stares out at the viewer. Her direct gaze recalls the self-portraits of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo (1907–1954). Cracks appear throughout her face, neck and chest. Portraiture and self-portraiture feature regularly in Keegan’s practice and are often references to her family photographs. Her extensive archive documents her Black middle-class Canadian family from the 1890s to the present day. Keegan moved to London in 1980 from the US and, in 1982, co-founded Brixton Art Gallery. She has spent her career working to support artists of colour.

Gallery label, January 2025

Claudette Johnson MBE, Untitled  1987

Untitled depicts three different views of Brenda Agard (1961-2012), Claudette Johnson’s close friend and fellow artist. Johnson worked on this pastel drawing for three months, building layers of pigment and blending them with her fingers. Instead of drawing from life, Johnson used a row of photographic test strips as a visual reference. Johnson describes her work as existing outside the realm of portraiture: ‘I’m not interested in portraiture or its tradition. I’m interested in giving space to Blackwomen presence.’

Gallery label, January 2025

Gilbert & George, England  1980

A fading Tudor rose representing England occupies the centre of this work. On either side, Gilbert & George strike confident poses in ‘a physical salute’ to the country. The artists’ sinister, gargoyle-like alter-egos perch above, suggesting a threat to the figures below. From 1974, the colour red began to appear regularly in their works. It hints at connotations of violence, rage and sex. As they put it, ‘Red is like love, or it is like blood, or danger, or fire.’ England is part of Modern Fears, a series produced between 1980 and 1981.

Gallery label, January 2025

Sunil Gupta, Bruno & Daniel, London  1984, printed 2018

This series of black and white portraits features gay and lesbian couples from Sunil Gupta’s social circles in London and Newcastle. Called Lovers: Ten Years On, the project was shot over a period of two years from 1984–6, following the end of Gupta’s own ten-year relationship. Reminiscent of traditional family portraits, the photographs show couples in affectionate poses in their own living spaces. Prejudicial coverage of the HIV and AIDS epidemic in the 1980s threatened to turn public opinion against the acceptance of queer relationships, which were portrayed as ‘sexually deviant’. In contrast to these offensive depictions of queer love, the people in Lovers: Ten Years On are often presented as quite ordinary, middle-class, professional couples. Many of the people photographed would later lose their lives to HIV and AIDS.

Gallery label, January 2025

Sunil Gupta, Johnathan & Kim, London  1985, printed 2018

This series of black and white portraits features gay and lesbian couples from Sunil Gupta’s social circles in London and Newcastle. Called Lovers: Ten Years On, the project was shot over a period of two years from 1984–6, following the end of Gupta’s own ten-year relationship. Reminiscent of traditional family portraits, the photographs show couples in affectionate poses in their own living spaces. Prejudicial coverage of the HIV and AIDS epidemic in the 1980s threatened to turn public opinion against the acceptance of queer relationships, which were portrayed as ‘sexually deviant’. In contrast to these offensive depictions of queer love, the people in Lovers: Ten Years On are often presented as quite ordinary, middle-class, professional couples. Many of the people photographed would later lose their lives to HIV and AIDS.

Gallery label, January 2025

Sunil Gupta, Sue & Yve, London  1984, printed 2018

This series of black and white portraits features gay and lesbian couples from Sunil Gupta’s social circles in London and Newcastle. Called Lovers: Ten Years On, the project was shot over a period of two years from 1984–6, following the end of Gupta’s own ten-year relationship. Reminiscent of traditional family portraits, the photographs show couples in affectionate poses in their own living spaces. Prejudicial coverage of the HIV and AIDS epidemic in the 1980s threatened to turn public opinion against the acceptance of queer relationships, which were portrayed as ‘sexually deviant’. In contrast to these offensive depictions of queer love, the people in Lovers: Ten Years On are often presented as quite ordinary, middle-class, professional couples. Many of the people photographed would later lose their lives to HIV and AIDS.

Gallery label, January 2025

Sunil Gupta, Andrew & John, London  1985, printed 2018

This series of black and white portraits features gay and lesbian couples from Sunil Gupta’s social circles in London and Newcastle. Called Lovers: Ten Years On, the project was shot over a period of two years from 1984–6, following the end of Gupta’s own ten-year relationship. Reminiscent of traditional family portraits, the photographs show couples in affectionate poses in their own living spaces. Prejudicial coverage of the HIV and AIDS epidemic in the 1980s threatened to turn public opinion against the acceptance of queer relationships, which were portrayed as ‘sexually deviant’. In contrast to these offensive depictions of queer love, the people in Lovers: Ten Years On are often presented as quite ordinary, middle-class, professional couples. Many of the people photographed would later lose their lives to HIV and AIDS.

Gallery label, January 2025

Sunil Gupta, Dylan & Gerald, London  1985, printed 2018

This series of black and white portraits features gay and lesbian couples from Sunil Gupta’s social circles in London and Newcastle. Called Lovers: Ten Years On, the project was shot over a period of two years from 1984–6, following the end of Gupta’s own ten-year relationship. Reminiscent of traditional family portraits, the photographs show couples in affectionate poses in their own living spaces. Prejudicial coverage of the HIV and AIDS epidemic in the 1980s threatened to turn public opinion against the acceptance of queer relationships, which were portrayed as ‘sexually deviant’. In contrast to these offensive depictions of queer love, the people in Lovers: Ten Years On are often presented as quite ordinary, middle-class, professional couples. Many of the people photographed would later lose their lives to HIV and AIDS.

Gallery label, January 2025

Sunil Gupta, Ian & Pavlik, London  1984, printed 2018

This series of black and white portraits features gay and lesbian couples from Sunil Gupta’s social circles in London and Newcastle. Called Lovers: Ten Years On, the project was shot over a period of two years from 1984–6, following the end of Gupta’s own ten-year relationship. Reminiscent of traditional family portraits, the photographs show couples in affectionate poses in their own living spaces. Prejudicial coverage of the HIV and AIDS epidemic in the 1980s threatened to turn public opinion against the acceptance of queer relationships, which were portrayed as ‘sexually deviant’. In contrast to these offensive depictions of queer love, the people in Lovers: Ten Years On are often presented as quite ordinary, middle-class, professional couples. Many of the people photographed would later lose their lives to HIV and AIDS.

Gallery label, January 2025

Veronica Slater, Soul Identified as Flesh  1987 – 1988

Sir Antony Gormley OBE RA, Three Ways: Mould Hole and Passage  1981–2

'You are aware that there is a transition, that something that is happening within you is gradually registering externally.' This is how Antony Gormley described his experience of making plaster casts of his own body. For Three Ways he used such casts to make lead figures in three simple poses: curled into a ball, bending over and lying down.

The sculptures have holes at the mouth, anus and penis respectively. These break the seemingly impenetrable surface of the lead body cases, suggesting an interaction between the outside world and the hollow space enclosed within.

Gallery label, August 2004