'Soft Play' is an exhibition of work by Scottish artist Trackie McLeod (b.1993) at Charleston in Lewes (15 October 2025–12 April 2026). Drawing on his experience of growing up queer in the Glasgow area in the 2000s, it references popular culture of the time including sportswear, music and computers.
I was moved by 'Gay if you don't', a 'List of things that were 'Gay' in School' inscribed on aluminium. It's a long list, to quote just a few examples:
HAVING YOUR RIGHT EAR PIERCED
HAVING YOUR LEFT EAR PIERCED
HAVING NICE HAND WRITING
HAVING SHORT HAIR
HAVING LONG HAIR
WEARING A GAP HOODIE
WEARING PINK
WEARING SKINNY JEANS
WEARING TROUSERS THAT WERE TOO SHORT
WEARING A VEST
WEARING A BLAZER
WEARING SHORT SHORTS
WEARING WHITE SOCKS WITH BLACK TRAINERS
WEARING BLACK SOCKS WITH WHITE TRAINERS
BEING PASSIONATE ABOUT ANYTHING
ACKNOWLEDGING YOUR MUM AT THE SCHOOL GATES
ACCIDENTLY CALLING THE TEACHER MUM
GIVING SOMEONE A CHRISTMAS CARD
HAVING A RING FINGER LONGER THAN YOUR INDEX FINGER
Recently Nigel Farage has been accused by some of his former school'mates' of terrible racist abuse of pupils at Dulwich College. Some of his apologists have claimed that it should all be forgotten as it was so long ago - or even questioned whether these witnesses could really recollect what was said in the late 1970s. But nobody on the receiving end of bullying and abuse at school ever forgets such words no matter how many years go by. McLeod's list reminded me of incidents at my school in Luton - like the boy being homophobically teased as 'ballet boy' because his sister had a dance magazine delivered with the paper round (he was outed by paper boy). Dancing, or seemingly even your sister dancing, was definitely 'a thing that was gay in school'.
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| Trackie McLeod, Infrared (speakers were playing Showtex 'FTS' while I was in there) |
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| Portrait of the artist in trackie (source) |
