We Have Always Been Here – Audio Descriptions of Exhibition Artwork

Reclaiming Power

Painted body parts, including hands and footprints, emerge across the surface, intertwined with swirling lines in pink, red, yellow, orange, green, and blue. Overlapping silhouettes, painted in red, yellow, grey, and blue, layer across the fabric, creating a sense of movement and collectivity.

The tapestry is embellished with pink thread weaving through its surface, alongside blue jewels and shimmering blue and white glitter. Black and white text from the collective poem is arranged around the overlapping silhouettes, reading: “Pouring water over the broken matka, asking it to be whole again, serve me a drink—I’m parched.” Other phrases layered throughout the piece pose reflective questions: “What do I carry from my ancestors?” and affirm powerful truths: “My skin embodies what history tried to erase.”

Extending beyond the tapestry, black vinyl text flows around the artwork and across the wall, reading: “Submerging myself into myself, I begin. Forgetting the sound of my name on your lips. You don’t have to be magic, you can just be.” Another phrase continues the theme of resistance and fluidity: “If I’m a stream of flowing water, society is a concrete maze, and every turn causes a crash of self.”

I was never meant to fit inside these lines

Collaged elements from workshop participants are embedded throughout the piece, visually representing the many narratives and histories held within the community—distinct, yet deeply intertwined. Lines of poetry are layered into the composition: “My life is drenched in landlord white” and “My body is an archive of stories untold” appear within the silhouettes.

Around the figures, the sky is a deep cosmic purple, resembling a galaxy. This otherworldly atmosphere reflects the idea that queerness exists beyond linear time, carrying the power to reshape history and reimagine the world. It affirms queerness as something universal, transformative, and inherently beautiful.

Above the illustration, the lines ‘I’m navigating a hidden river’ ‘sculptured by uninventive hands’  and ‘tears melting facades’ from the poetry workshop flow in a wave pattern.

I was never meant to fit inside these lines

Collaged elements from workshop participants are embedded throughout the piece, visually representing the many narratives and histories held within the community.  Lines of poetry are layered into the composition: “Can you hide something that you didn’t know existed’ and “what parts of me are in flux” ‘my skin embodies what history tried to erase’ appear within the silhouettes.

Around the figures, the sky is a deep cosmic purple, resembling a galaxy. Just like the other portrait, this otherworldly atmosphere reflects the idea that queerness exists beyond linear time, carrying the power to reshape history and reimagine the world. It affirms queerness as something universal, transformative, and inherently beautiful.

Above the illustration, the lines ‘Never knowing If I’ll stop and take form’ flow in a wave and below the portrait ‘I write my name a thousand times across your back, whispering a kiss across each clavicle’ appears in a line.

Ebb and Flow

Among the ocean, collaged photographs and artwork of gender and sexual fluidity from South Asia, Africa, Native America, and Indigenous Mexico flow between them, reinforcing a connection to histories and traditions beyond the west. The phrase “I was never meant to fit inside these lines” taken from a participants collage is embedded within the composition.

The figure on the right is depicted in rich purples with bold, wave-like blue hair, drawn with bold,  fluid, expressive lines. The figure on the left has brown skin, deep blue hair, and bright red shards flowing through it, creating a sense of movement and transformation. Streams of blue and purple cascade from both their eyes, merging into the river between them—symbolising the fluidity of gender and identity, shifting like water.

Lines from the collective poem weave through the piece: “I wish someone told me when I was younger, that I can ebb and flow like the tide… that I didn’t have to be one or the other.”

Above them, a deep purple galaxy sky stretches across the canvas. Another line from the poem, “I can feel it heavy in the curls of my hair, hair spirals like waves and I feel like I’m walking on a dark stormy ocean,” is layered within, evoking the interplay between personal history and ancestral memory.

Beneath the artwork, black vinyl features the lines ‘free to pursue authentic mediocrity, not bound to perceived easy excellence’ arranged in a wave-like pattern, extending the visual language of water and fluidity beyond the frame.

Villiers Revealed – We Have Always Been Here

Community input

Language and why it matters

• LGBTQIA+: An acronym that stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer/Questioning, Intersex, and Asexual. The + represents other identities and experiences within the queer community.
• We use terms like ‘fluidity’ to describe experiences of gender that go beyond the male-female binary. Gender fluidity and non-binary identities have existed across many non-Western cultures and civilisations, including in South Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, the Pacific Islands and in indigenous and first nation communities. Today, terms like ‘trans’, ‘non-binary’ or ‘gender-diverse’ may be used to describe similar experiences, though different cultures have their own unique words and understandings of gender that may differ from western understandings.
• Queer: We recognise that for some people this word can be uncomfortable. It can represent both discrimination and pain or joy and celebration. Queer recognises the intersection of so many different identities in the LGBTQ+ community. For us it is the most inclusive term we can use, but that doesn’t mean that we are trying to dismiss other experiences of the word. We use this word positively and invite you to be included in a conversation about how it is used.
• Colonialism is when a country takes control over another place, usually by force, to exploit its land, people, and resources. This often leads to long-lasting harm, like cultural erasure, economic inequality, and racism. Even after colonisation “ends,” its effects can still shape the world today (this is called colonial legacy).
• Intersectionality is the idea that different parts of a person’s identity (like race, gender, class, sexuality, disability) overlap and create unique experiences of privilege or oppression. For example, a Black trans person might face discrimination in ways that are different from a white trans person or a Black cisgender person. It helps us understand how different forms of discrimination connect rather than exist separately.
• You’ll see pronouns in brackets after names, like XXX (they/them). This helps us refer to people correctly without assuming their gender, since gender identity is deeply personal and can’t be assumed from a name or the way someone looks. Using the right pronouns shows respect and inclusion.