Tessa Boffin: Where We Touch the Archive
This September, Tessa Boffin: Where We Touch the Archive arrives at BACKLIT. The national touring exhibition brings the work of artist and activist Tessa Boffin into dialogue with new commissions, collective research and a growing publication shaped by queer communities.
Exhibition Preview (booking required):
- Date: Friday 18 September 18:00 – 20:00
- RSVP: Click here to RSVP on Eventbrite
Exhibition Continues:
- Dates: 19 Septemer - 17 October
- Days: Thursday, Friday, Saturday
- Times: 12:00 – 16:00
- No need to book
Location:
- Main Gallery, Second Floor
- BACKLIT, Alfred House, Ashley Street, Nottingham, NG3 1JG
Tessa Boffin: Where We Touch the Archive is centred on the work and legacy of artist and activist Tessa Boffin (1960–1993).
Working across photography, writing, performance and activism, Boffin challenged dominant ideas of gender, sexuality and visibility, creating space for queer lives to be represented differently. Bringing her work into dialogue with new commissions by Sophie Mak-Schram and Leah McLaine, the exhibition approaches the archive not as a fixed record of the past, but as an energised and collective space shaped by what survives, what remains absent and what can be activated in the present.
The commissions have developed through extensive research within collections held by University for the Creative Arts Special Collections, the Estate of Tessa Boffin/The Gupta+Singh Archives and Hales, London and New York. Responding to Boffin’s images, pedagogy and politics, the new works extend the questions held within her archive rather than attempting to complete or resolve them.
THE DRAFT
Alongside the exhibition, THE DRAFT is a growing publication assembled over the course of the tour. It brings together existing materials shared by queer artists, writers, researchers and activists, expanding at each venue through fragments drawn from individual practices and personal archives.
Each contribution includes a question for those who follow, allowing THE DRAFT to develop as an ongoing conversation across generations, geographies and communities. The publication extends the exhibition beyond the institutional archive, recognising the photographs, letters, notes, messages and other traces kept within everyday life as forms of queer cultural memory.
Submissions remain open throughout the tour. LGBTQIA+ artists, writers, researchers and activists are invited to contribute something that already exists within their practice or personal archive.
A Collective Curatorial Approach
Co-curated by Polly Wright (Devonshire Collective), Jazz Swali (BACKLIT), Ricardo Reverón Blanco (Aspex Portsmouth) and Danit Ariel (Photoworks), the project has developed through a collective and intersectional approach to queer and feminist artistic and archival research.
As it travels between Eastbourne, Nottingham, Brighton and Portsmouth, the exhibition considers how archives can create relationships between artists, institutions, places and generations—and how Boffin’s work might continue to generate new ways of seeing, thinking and working together.
The exhibition also coincides with a new phase of archive development at BACKLIT supported by Art Fund, reflecting a wider commitment to preserving artists’ archives while keeping them active, open and available for future interpretation.
Co-commissioned by Devonshire Collective, Aspex Portsmouth, BACKLIT and Photoworks. Supported by the Jenni Crain Foundation, The National Archives, the Paul Mellon Foundation and Arts Council England.With thanks to the Estate of Tessa Boffin/The Gupta+Singh Archives; Hales, London and New York; and University for the Creative Arts Special Collections.
Access Information
- Step-free access: Available via Alfred Street and via a tarmac ramp to the lower ground floor and Project Gallery.
- Lift access: Our staff-operated lift is currently accessible from Ashley Street only. If you require lift access, please email [email protected] in advance or use the intercom when you arrive so that a member of staff can assist you.
- Accessible parking: Limited parking is available by arrangement. To book parking, please call 0115 837 2426 or email [email protected].
- Toilets: All toilets are gender neutral. Please note that none currently have wide-access doors, although we are actively working to improve this next year.
- Assistance dogs: Guide and hearing dogs are welcome throughout the building.
- Need more information? If you have any questions or access requirements before your visit, please get in touch—we're happy to help.