Dorian’s Attic

The Rainbow Museum of Queer Life is a popular Sunday attraction for the whole family. Its displays promote pride and inclusion and offer insights into the entwined nature of love and progress. Each visit is a morally corrective experience. But one room is forever closed to the public: The Dorian Gray Attic, a repository for all artefacts that are too hideous or politically dangerous to unleash on the unwitting punter.

Dorian’s Attic at Verdurin is a tour through this idiosyncratic collection of art from gay history that has been banned, cast out, or simply conveniently forgotten. The afternoon will play host to screenings of fringe video art, poetry and fiction readings, and reconstruction performances of archival artefacts and plays. 

The artworks will be selected by speakers participating in the previous day’s Return to Sodom and sourced by public ballot. The audience will be invited to join in creating the event, for example, by reading play parts. Any artefact deemed too terrible or even too dangerous by the assembled company will enter the public display at the Museum. The event itself will also be recorded in literary form for a forthcoming Verdurin book publication.

Dorian’s Attic is organised with Amir Naaman and is part of Gay Amnesia.