EXHIBITION: The Artists Donating 'One Piece' for Peace in Chechnya

Group show One Piece, opening Tuesday 23rd May at NSH Arts in Mile End, will raise funds for the Russian LGBT Network's efforts to protect and evacuate gay people who are facing persecution in Chechnya.
​CKM speaks to exhibition organisers, artists Jonathan Dean and Ed Firth, and takes a look at some of the artists exhibiting.

A diverse community of artists responded to an urgent call to donate work for an exhibition then being planned in real time, now set to open on the 23rd of May. A second wave of auctions will follow; artists can sell work using the hashtag #OnePieceforChechnya and donate proceeds directly. Exhibition organisers Jonathan Dean and Ed Firth explain; 'we wanted to open this show before May 26th, the deadline set by the Chechen president to eradicate all gay people from the republic'.
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​East London-based artists and animators Dean and Firth are bringing together over 40 artists to auction paintings, prints, collage, ceramics, sculpture and zines. On their decision to hold the fundraising exhibition, Dean and Firth reflect that as queer people themselves, 'this is an issue close to our hearts and we're acutely aware that it could very well be ourselves being thrown to our deaths by a family member, or rounded up and tortured in a secret prison, by a government who insist publicly that we don't even exist.'

Dean and Firth's response to the crisis came from the realisation that although they cannot hold the perpetrators to account, they can contribute towards keeping queer people in Chechnya safe by raising funds directly for Russian LGBT organisations who are working hard on doing just that. To this end, they put feelers out to artists to donate one piece for peace, gathering a 'range of professional artists all responding to this emergency with compassion and creativity'.

William Martin, a queer ceramicist taking part in the exhibition, says, 'coming from Cape Town, I've seen structural violence first hand. I came of age after Apartheid, so my sexuality was never illegal. That wasn't the case for my older friends. I saw how the damage of that experience stayed with them into later life'. On his decision to donate work to the exhibition, Martin relates that 'LGBTQ+ rights can never be taken for granted. I'm donating to One Piece for Chechnya to fight back against the lethal use of our community as a nationalist scapegoat'.

Here, we look at just a few of the artists donating work, and their pieces:
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FREDERIK ANDERSSON 

'If you ask my friends about me they will surely tell you about my obsession for drawing naked people, especially hairy men. This is all true, I have a big interest in subjects such as Sex and intimacy. You can see this red string running through all of my work going through my writing, Illustration & my ceramics.'

WILLIAM MARTIN

'William Martin uses ceramic as a medium for both its material, and socio-economic history. He does this to contextualise his own position, addressing the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution and Colonialism. He uses his biography as the field of study, providing examples that highlight the complex and conflicted nature of meaning.'

REBECCA CHITTICKS

'I find my work to be informed by the creeping influence of the digital realm. Whilst browsing through feeds and skimming streams of data I am constantly soaking up ideas and finding relationships, imagined narratives between disparate threads of information, fragments of pictures, colours and these are used as my references.​'

NOAH DENT

Noah Dent designs and animates imagery at Google UK. He organised One Piece with Ed Firth: 'this is an issue close to our hearts and we're acutely aware that it could very well be ourselves being thrown to our deaths by a family member, or rounded up and tortured in a secret prison, by a government who insist publicly that we don't even exist'.

MARTIN PERRY

'After years of art direction Martin is now seriously pursuing his own photography with an emphasis on travel, portrait and menswear editorials. He is directing his first short film and spends as much time as possible mentoring young and upcoming creatives.'

Other artists showing work include Phoebe Boswell, Xavier Boldtron Cardona, Chris Duncan, Ego Rodriguez, Gregory Tingay, Hormazd Geve Narielwalla, James Davison, John Walter, Paul Bommer, Peter Jones, Richard Kilroy, Santiago Alcón, Sina Sparrow, William Martin, Bjørn-Erik Aschim, Daniela Attard, David Wilson, Fredrik Sven Knut Anderssonn, Isago Fukuda, John Booth, Kirsty Harris, Manel Ortega, Martin Perry, Nick Taylor, Phoebe Boswell, Ricardo Bessa, Guy Burch and Keith Tenor.

'One Piece' opens at 7pm on Tuesday 23rd May at NSH Arts in Mile End, East London. The exhibition will run until Tuesday 30th May.