Today I had the amazing chance to go and hear Ian McKellen talk about his life growing up gay. I had originally heard about it through my sister who said he was attending her high school to do the talk so I spoke to a few of the teachers and gained myself permission to tag along. Ian spoke about many inspiring things and I created a voice recording of this for my art project. I hope to quote a few pieces he said that I truly connected to such as "you never meet a gay person who regrets coming out" and "you don't get anywhere if you don't stick up for yourself" along with numerous other things from my voice recording. The speech was truly inspirational and I was captivated by Ian's talk of starting Stonewall and how his life improved on coming out. The speech informed me of a different time that I had not experienced, a time when being gay was illegal. I got the chance to hear first hand what it had been like to live through that period of life, I found myself a wild emotional mess the whole way through. To hear such a story from such an influential figure, someone who I would call my 'gay icon', was such an inspiring experience.
I later discussed the speech with my friends and one of them suggested I use the recording as a part of my exhibition. This started a formulation of ideas. I began thinking about how I could copy the talk to a CD and have it playing in my studio space for everyone to hear as they walked through. I'd like my studio space to be a walk through space covered in my final piece banners which would end up having the overall appearance of a pride march - banners everywhere with a passionate talker about gay rights. However, my recording was taken from the back of a large hall and so I am currently sending out emails to find out if anyone else has any clearer recordings. At the moment it seems that my high school tutor has a recording but I will have to wait and find out if he can get permission for me to use it.
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