Queer History Month – Of Us and Others
Month-long digital screening of AGA’s first visual art creative commission by Maya Rose Edwards
It’s Queer History Month!
To celebrate, we’re delighted to be hosting a month-long digital screening of ‘Of Us & Others’ – the result of The Alasdair Gray Archive’s inaugural visual art Creative Commission with Maya Rose Edwards, made possible with support from Creative Scotland’s Open Fund and The Edwin Morgan Trust.
Drawing inspiration from WWI ‘camouflage trees’ – hollow structures used for covert observation – Edwards created two sculptural installations that became sites for live, anonymous conversations between LGBTQIA+ thinkers.
These dialogues, held across various locations in Glasgow, explored shared themes in the works of Alasdair Gray and Edwin Morgan, from imagined futures to the forging of queer kinship. Uniquely, participants – poets, artists, researchers, young people, and activists – entered these conversations without prior knowledge of one another, connected only by their shared belonging to the wider LGBTQ+ community. In Edwards’ work, the camouflage tree becomes a symbolic space of safety and encounter, allowing a relational façade where queer kinship can emerge, fleeting solidarities take shape, and unspoken truths are shared. The chosen sites resonate with Gray and Morgan’s Glasgow, grounding the project in both literary and queer historical geographies.
Reflecting on the project, Maya said:
“Huge thanks to The Alasdair Gray Archive for making ‘Of Us & Others’ available to view online during Queer History Month. It’s been really special to share this work, a series of conversations between queer people of different ages and walks of life, and to reflect on the connections, care, and collective stories that continue to shape our community. I hope that ‘Of Us & Others’ can be a reminder of the power of solidarity and belonging towards a brighter future.”
‘Of Us & Others’ YouTube premiere: 1st of February at 7pm.
Digital screening available thereafter from 1st – 28th of February.
With thanks to participants: Domenico Di Rosa, Salma Faraji, Dr Cole Collins, Hussein Mitha, Keava McMillan, Michael Mullen, Austin Agarwal, Syd Sisson
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