Kiss & TellLesbian Art & Activism

Comprised of Persimmon Blackbridge (b.1951), Lizard Jones (b.1961), and Susan Stewart (b.1952), the Kiss & Tell collective met and formed in Vancouver at the end of the 1980s: a decade marked by the continued marginalization of lesbian and queer women in Canadian art, media, and popular culture. Their landmark photography exhibition Drawing the Line, first held at Vancouver’s Women in Focus Gallery in 1988 and exhibited internationally, drew crowds and launched the group’s decades-long commitment to championing lesbian sexuality, representation, and identities in the nation’s visual landscape.

In Kiss & Tell: Lesbian Art & Activism, author Kristen Hutchinson explores the groundbreaking contributions of the collective alongside some of the most seismic debates in contemporary discourse including censorship, queer bodies and representation, disability, art as activism, and the feminist sex wars. Through a close consideration of the artists’ use of photography, video, performance, and the written word, we learn how, over the course of fourteen years, Blackbridge, Jones, and Stewart challenged the notion that they needed to stay invisible to stay safe from discrimination and prejudice. While Kiss & Tell have often said their works were a reaction to a particular place and time, their oeuvre remains fresh, revelatory, and relevant today.