Council House Movie Star: a photographic exhibition of practice based research.

Council House Movie Star: a photographic exploration of practice based research consists of a series of photographic gallery images of the working class drag queen Gale Force and her ‘family’ on the periphery of society. These photographs were taken over a period of two years and reflect the creative process of the renowned film and immersive installation work Council House Movie Star (2012). This exhibition will display the body as it really is with the greying of hair, bad wigs and make-up and no glamorous Photoshop trickery, no pretend muscles and no removal of fatty skin. The work seeks to encapsulate the immortalised fat and ageing drag body on canvas, laid bare for public scrutiny. In addition to the display of photographs printed onto canvas, accompanying texts will give greater insights into the working process and behind-the-scenes action of the research and methods used. These shall include: filming scenes, rehearsals, performances, the ‘dragging up’ and ‘dragging down’ in the changing rooms, and projection of documented interviews with performers. The documentation of the process of performance making is, in itself, as essential as the performance for practice-led artists.