Contains Art Evaluation Report 2020

Final evaluation, January 2020
2.4 Artist opportunity exhibitions
Dylan Fox:
Rituals of Tourism
28.04.18—03.06.18
For our emerging artist slot we
selected recent graduate, Dylan
Fox. Rituals of Tourism was
based on Fox’s early childhood
memories of visiting the
seaside; exploring the beach,
racing to get candyfloss, saving
room for fish and chips, and
finding a suitable postcard to
send home.
As an adult, these activities
became rituals. They were
important steps in ensuring a
trip to the seaside lived
up to expectations. Dylan
turned these rituals into a
series of new works, each
addressing some of the artist’s
more recent experiences of
gender transition, playing with
the balance between these
formative memories and the
much harsher reality of
living as a transgender adult.
Many of these works also
highlighted how these realities
affect the wider transgender
community, using the exhibition
as a platform to voice
these problems.
Rituals of Tourism explored
different methods of
collaboration, such as a series
of artist led walks where
members of the public could
steer the direction taken and
the topic of conversation.
This opened up questions
of authorship, collaboration
and community that Dylan
envisions will help develop
future participatory works.
Dylan’s practice explores the
physical, medical, emotional
and social aspects of
gender transition; specifically
the frustration felt with
inefficient transgender
healthcare pathways. His
work is hinged on how social
constructs affect people,
aiming to question and shift
these by generating work
through social interaction,
working with other artists and
the public.
A key part of this exhibition
for audiences was the process
of finding ephemeral works
around the town, such as
beermats, postcard stands,
free candyfloss, deckchairs,
and windbreaks—the gallery
acting as a Tourist Information
Centre and exploration point
for each work and event.
Key lessons
Candyfloss brought a
young audience, that Dylan
hadn’t anticipated, to the
performance—embracing
this was paramount to its
success. It also highlighted
a need to more formally
consider our use of nongender
specific pronouns
when communicating with
the LGBTQI+ community.
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