This billboard shows images by artist Dean Knight derived from material found in Outback Newsletter for Lesbians in Cornwall and the Far South West. Outback Newsletter was a zine created by a group of gay women primarily based in Penzance which was published and distributed between 1996 and 2008.
The Outback Newsletter consisted of poems, community updates, a gardening column, events listings and classified adverts, as well as replicating “gay” images from popular culture. Photocopied magazine cuttings of internationally recognised celebrities, such as Jodie Foster, K.D. Lang and Ellen DeGeneres, appear repeatedly throughout *Outback Newsletter’*s 150 issues. The presence of these recurring icons reflects the importance of queer visibility during the years of Section 28 and beyond (1988–2003).
By magnifying and partially abstracting small and discreet elements from issues of the Outback Newsletter, Knight elevates overlooked fragments of queer print culture, inviting viewers to reconsider their significance as both graphic objects and acts of community-building.
This work began while researching Kresen Kernow’s Queer Archive and developed as part of KOMPAS, a project devised by the artist SHARP in collaboration with Queer Kernow. Knight’s work on this project has expanded from screen-printed posters and gouache paintings of this local, self-published zine so vital in its time, to these billboard sized prints that speak to the continued need for visibility, solidarity and pride.
An intervention to the council provided hanging basket on the front of Hweg, replacing the begonias with lavender. Lavender, the more drought resistant plant, gently reaffirms its roots as a symbol of lesbian resistance against hostile authority each time the council comes by to water it.
Hweg is a project within the ecosystem of Radical Ecology.
