Tag Archives: Berlin Gay Museum

Live-drawing Pêdra Costa and Sadie Lune at the Schwules Museum!

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Pedra Costa performing at Schwules Museum by Suzanne Forbes Mar 7 2019Valentine’s Day was the finissage of the EXTRA + TERRESTRIAL exhibit by COVEN BERLIN at Berlin’s Gay Museum, the Schwules Museum.

I was invited by Harley Aussoleil of COVEN BERLIN to do documentary drawing. (You can see my drawings from the Spoken Word event of the show here.)

Pêdra Costa, a Brazilian performance artist, performed hers work de_colon_isation. You can see hers beginning the piece above, with technical support from Maya Guttman.

In the background, on the wall, are drawn works by the incredible Mexican artist Rurru Mipanochia; you can see photos of them here!

Pedra Costa dancing in performance at Schwules Museum by Suzanne Forbes Feb 27 2019Here is Pêdra dancing as the scent of “Brazilian Bum Bum” cream fills the air.

I loved how the sensory experience of smell was incorporated into the work. There are photos on Instagram!

Sadie Lune and Jo Pollux filmed by Marit Ostberg at Schwules Museum by Suzanne Forbes March 7 2019My friend Sadie Lune, who is part of COVEN, was being filmed by the documentary crew of multidisciplinary queer artist Marit Östberg.

Here you can see Sadie, eight months pregnant, being interviewed as she and photographer Jo Pollux lie within Sadie’s piece, “Weird Sisters”. I feel like it looks like they’re in a field at night and Sadie is pointing out the constellations to Jo, telling her a story about the baby’s star sign.

Many thanks to Harley Aussoleil, who was in charge of the event programming for this exhibit and provided wonderful support to me as I worked! These drawings, like 95% of my art, are licensed Creative Commons for you to freely use and share if you credit me as artist.

And always, always, thank you to my Patrons on Patreon, whose monthly subscription support makes my work documenting queer Berlin possible.

Spoken word at the Schwules Museum!

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audience at the Schwules Museum by Suzanne Forbes Jan 12 2019I finally made it to an event at the Schwules Museum!

Thanks to my friend Suzanne Wegh, who is always on top of the cool events, I knew there would be an evening of poetry, prose readings and talks at the SPIRITS Dyke Bar at Schwules Museum. I’ve been wanting to visit Berlin’s Gay and Lesbian museum for ages, but with chronic illness I can’t do as much as I want.

The Schwules Museum is 34 years old this year, and it is so lovely.

I came in out of the rain and immediately was happy and comfortable and wanted to see everything, read everything and buy all the cool stuff at the gift shop. The SPIRITS Dyke Bar has been a year-long installation by Ernest Ah, T Blank, and C Detrow set up in the cafe, which is super cozy and comfortable. The event was held by COVEN Berlin, a sex-positive transdisciplinary genderbender collective that my friend Sadie Lune belongs to. (Sadie has a piece in COVEN Berlin’s current exhibition at the museum, EXTRA+TERRESTRIAL!)

Alex Alvina at the Schwules Museum by Suzanne Forbes Jan 12 2019Here is my drawing of Alex Alvina Chamberland reading from one of her amazing pieces about travelling while trans.

She is hilarious and poignant and writes about lots of Bay Area experiences I could relate to 🙂

Lee Richards at the Schwules Museum Suzanne Forbes Jan 12 2019Here is Lee Richards telling the audience about how “Voodoo doesn’t give a shit who you sleep with” during their talk.

Lovely picture of me with Lee! What you can’t see is that there was a cute doggie right behind us. Photo by Bard!Suzanne Forbes and Lee Richards at the SPIRITS Dyke Bar at Schwules Museum Jan 12 2019

The doggie is named Milka which is a brand of chocolate, candy and cookies; I don’t know the name of the person petting it but the man who is a chair user is Ed! I will get the name of the performer below and add it shortly 🙂 their writing was excellent.

edit: Mine Serizawa is the writer seen below!

I am so grateful to begin another year documenting queer culture in Berlin, thanks to my Patrons on Patreon, whose monthly financial support allows me to make art. 

My live documentary art is licensed Creative Commons and free for all to share and print, you can read about how that works here. And if you can visit the Schwules Museum, I definitely recommend it!