Be yourself, everyone else is already taken | Daniel Lismore

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Introduced to Daniel Lismore's work through Daniel Fountain's artist talk at the Herbert Gallery, I immediately felt a sense of belonging with these costumes.

'Be yourself, everyone else is already taken, 2022'

Daniel Lismore

Coventry City of Culture Exhibition, The Herbert Gallery

Images courtesy of the artist via: https://coventry2021.co.uk/what-s-on/daniel-lismore-be-yourself-everyone-else-is-already-taken/

Lismore's work focusses on platforming themes of personal expression and self-preservation through examining multi-dimensional identity. The intersections where varying, and sometimes opposing, identities collide are represented visually in this work; this is what I aim to explore in my work, and to invoke the same sort of reaction.

'Be yourself, everyone else is already taken, 2022'

Daniel Lismore

Coventry City of Culture Exhibition, The Herbert Gallery

Images courtesy of the Author

Particularly the fact that the material Lismore used was sourced through people around them/second hand. This resonated with me as I have often felt that my moving around as a child left me feeling as though I was collecting pieces of and links to different cultures and communities, but never had any quantifiable or material claim to any.

'Be yourself, everyone else is already taken, 2022'

Daniel Lismore

Coventry City of Culture Exhibition, The Herbert Gallery

Images courtesy of the Author

The gaudy and in-your-face nature of the result of this collection of selves runs parallel to camp and sees crossover when the extravagance of the aesthetic makes it impossible as the perpetuator to move through the world without being perceived. This- to be unapologetically authentic- becomes a final act of rebellion by queer people playing into the shocking and extravagant in order to take up space and demand it be given as a right, not a privilege that must be earnt through being "acceptable".