Tulips

Who owns the city? In Tulips, artist duo Hannah Quinlan & Rosie Hastings, alongside scholar Christina B. Hanhardt map a terrain where they explore gestures of authority and obedience in the public space within the urban context of gentrification and policing against marginalized queer communities. The work of Hannah Quinlan & Rosie Hastings (b. 1991 in Newcastle and 1991 in London, live and working in London) deals with the socio-cultural and political structures that reinforce conservatism and discriminatory practices within and around the LGBTQIA+ community. In their works the artist duo explores how the queer community’s “safe spaces” have been displaced by political strategies and how a history of femininity and the colonized body in the transition to capitalism is shaped by rationalization of social reproduction and ownership of the self. Christina B. Hanhardt (lives and works in New York) is Associate Professor in the Department of American Studies. Her research focuses on the historical and contemporary study of U.S. social movements and cities since the mid-20th century, with an emphasis on the politics of stigma, punishment, and uneven development. KONTEXT, a series by DISTANZ, brings together artists and writers for an exchange between the worlds of writing and contemporary art. With commissioned text, reissued essays, or experimental writing, the publication series seeks to look at and comment on current debates through writing and contemporary art.