Andia Coral Newton South East London based maker and project coordinator
Distese-Queerness oltre i confini
Curated by Finn Brown and Lorenzo Xiques Lopez
7 – 28 June 2025
YAG/garage, Pescara, Italy
“On Saturday 7 June, the exhibition Distese – Queerness oltre i Confini opens, curated by Finn Brown and Lorenzo Xiques Lopez, a collective that explores the multiple forms of queer identity through the art of Freya Gascoyne, Soul Baraitser, Andia Coral Newton, Asafe Ghalib, Dario Biancullo, Kobramulata, Sarà Leghissa and Taquitojocoque and Matteo Domenichetti, eight Italian and English artists.
Painting, photography, installations, fabrics, words and sounds become tools to reflect, cross and subvert the social, cultural and symbolic boundaries that define what is visible, acceptable, “normal”.
Queer art, here, is not just expression but a political and affective gesture: a language that challenges norms and categories, opening spaces of care, resistance and possibility.
The exhibition develops as a crossing, a plural landscape in which identity is not given but constantly questioned, reinvented, lived.
Distese is an invitation to look beyond imposed limits and imagine new ways of existence.”
Over the course of the residency, I created a series of new drawings, painted with natural pigments made from local plants. These were shown with older works in the resulting exhibition.
I was thrilled to learn about Ginestra, which I was told about on my first day in Pescara and knew I had to research. I’d never heard of it, but in the region it used to be retted and spun into fibre for yarn. Apparently elderly folks in the area remember this but it doesn’t seem to be practiced so much these days. It made a beautiful yellow colour when boiled down.
I also learned about local uses for unripe walnuts. These are made into a liqueur, Nocino, around the solstice and so are associated with Saint John the Baptist, whose birthday is said to be around the 24th June. When I researched further, it turns out that the liqueur was actually developed by the Picts of Great Britain, who claimed to talk to goblins having drunk the stuff. Sounds great. The unripe walnuts made a rich brown when oxidised and heated with water.
Below Various weaving cartoons, drawn with handmade pigments:
Indigo from London.
Cherries and Avocado stones from the dinner table.
Mint from the walk up the hill.
Walnut husks, Eucalyptus bark and Ginestra from the garden of new friends in Pescara.
Images from the Private View: