Meet the artists
ED FIRTH
Artist and author of Horny & High, a queer graphic novel series about chemsex addiction. His work has been shortlisted for major prizes, exhibited at the Tom of Finland Foundation, and is held in the V&A and Walker Gallery collections. He also founded East London Life Drawing and volunteers as a chemsex keyworker.
THE PROPOSAL
A montage of the diversity, beauty and colour of the LGBTQIA+ scene, but with someone missing: a person-shaped hole where a buddy, partner, colleague once was. The stigma and shame around chemsex are such that people experiencing addiction feel they can’t tell their friends, partner, family, doctor, even their therapist what’s happening to them, even as they fade gradually from their own life. This mural is a celebration of queer joy and also an acknowledgement of the high rates of substance abuse in our community and how it shows up. I hope for the mural to be impactful without imposing its message too overtly on the local community, finding its audience with the small visual cues we use to find each other in crowded spaces. I have also proposed a plan B in case the mural option isn’t possible: a 14 page comic depicting someone in recovery feeling triggered at London Pride, suffering in silence whilst everyone around them indulges in excess and exuberance
paul Kearney
Award-winning Irish artist known for bold, digitally-created prints. Based at MART Studios in Galway, he has exhibited internationally across Europe, the USA, and South America. His work is held in private and public collections, including the Irish State Art Collection and Villanova University.
THE PROPOSAL
I’d like to use an existing piece of work and transfer it as a mural. In my experience people don’t know what this is about unless they have lived experience of chemsex. It is from my first chemsex party in Brighton in 2018 while I was escaping from domestic violence and the reality of my situation.
I’m lucky to have survived while so many haven’t. In the piece, everyone is looking at their phones and it conveys the disconnect and isolation that chemsex brings.
AARON
An artist working in drawing, painting and mixed media. They use art to communicate what they struggle to put into words.
THE PROPOSAL
I’d like to make a painting or a series of paintings to depict the emotional complexity of chemsex. There are many different, sometimes conflicting, feelings: intimacy, joy, freedom, guilt, shame and loneliness.
I’d like to make something that brings together these experiences without judgment. I usually build images up intuitively and in layers, drawing, covering things up and responding to what comes out so it becomes a dialogue. The aim is to share what usually stays hidden, and to help people feel less alone.