Every Day Lives of Lesbian Wives
June 1-June 30, 2025 at Xchanges Passages Gallery
Artist Statement
Butch, femme, and stone identities and dynamics emerged from lesbian bar communities of North America of the 1940s to 1970s. Stone butch generally refers to a lesbian who does not have their genitals touched and does not receive penetration during sex. A stone, or high, femme generally does not perform penetration. The boundary itself may be referred to as oneโs โstoneโ.
The introduction of Polaroid and other forms of instant photography in the mid-20th century allowed queer people a level of confidentiality to capture their memories. Self-developing film eliminated the need for a darkroom and connection to a third-party developer as involving a third party meant a risk of being outed, having film destroyed, and facing other forms of discrimination.
Our use of Polaroid cameras (the Spirit 600 and 600 Impulse Autofocus models) to capture our lives in the 21st century references the practices of those who paved the way for us in a relatively recent period of queer history and maintains this method of queer record-keeping and its personal, confidential nature. The photos captured are intimate scenes from our day to day life as a stone femmebutch leatherdyke couple. With us each being both photographer and subject, we are able to portray butch from a femme perspective, femme from a butch perspective, and the interactions between the two.
Festival Dates
June 1 to June 30th at Various Local Galleries (Queerisland.ca)
Opening Reception
Friday June 13th at 7:00 p.m.
Gallery hours:
Saturday/Sunday
from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
About the Artist
Peter MacBeth is a stone butch lesbian and emerging artist practicing on the lands of the lษkฬสทษลษn and WฬฑSรNEฤ people. Ze is inspired by outsider and folk artists. Hir work is an exploration of medium and process featuring themes of lesbian and transgender identity and experiences, wordplay, and time and memory, with a current focus on chainmail and photography.
Darcy Gould is a femme writer studying English and Religion + Cultural Studies at the University of Victoria. Their work centers around lesbian and mixed Indigenous identity, bizarre folklore, lesbionic melodrama, and plant symbolism. They are fond of fruit and haunted objects.
Xchanges gratefully acknowledges the support of the Province of British Columbia and the Capital Regional District for our gallery programs.
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