{"id":55016,"title":"The Pansy Project: Merchandise & Meaning","description":"What does it mean to translate a site-specific act of remembrance into an object that can be held, worn, or shared? This post considers how merchandise, when thoughtfully designed, can extend the life of an artwork while remaining accountable to the communities and histories it represents.","content":"

\"fzyxi3lgi9jsteipf2vclpdaoupozwlh1sldakiduse0xl0w.jpg.jpg?w=1140&project=birds-can-fly-107914&v=2\"The Pansy Project <\/u><\/a>is a sustained body of work confronting the realities of homophobia and transphobia. For more than twenty years I have explored these narratives, work that began with my own experience has since grown into acts of marking violence on behalf of others across the LGBTQ+ community.<\/p>

\"gvravutbreemowe2kevoq2w9rf4bqv8vyflquqlkc8s6iwjt.jpg.jpg?w=1140&v=2\"Photo: Sophie Marie Louise Keough. Taken during Remember Nature<\/u><\/a> Day of Action in November 2025.<\/p>

Operating somewhere between planting, performance, and artwork, the project has often existed at the edges of exhibitions and festivals. The photographs, taken at sites of hate crime, have largely lived online<\/u><\/a>, with occasional gallery presentations. Yet exhibiting the work presented a persistent conceptual challenge: how to ensure that the abuse itself occupied as much space as the seductive image of the pansy. The work depends upon this tension; the collision of violence and beauty.<\/p>

\"uc8rljviynff7qiegotjkooig58ngsvrrvvsar6hz55oeb11.jpg.jpg?w=1140&z=1.3000000000000003&fx=0.5017373644377409&fy=0.4952305877809422&project=birds-can-fly-107914&v=2\"After years of wrestling with this question, my recent inclusion in an exhibition at Open Eye Gallery<\/u><\/a> represents a significant resolution, capturing the complexity of this two-decade practice within a gallery context. It marks a turning point, a moment of maturity within the work.<\/p>

\"broi05i1c1wsy7v4mrneivpwtq4xux1i8hyfpw1wxbqjqbu3.jpg.jpg?w=1140&v=2\"One of the 60 images included in the LOOK CLIMATE LAB 26 at Open Eye Gallery<\/u><\/a><\/p>

Over time, individuals, organisations, and festivals have recognised the project\u2019s clarity and encouraged me to expand how The Pansy Project is shared. I named it a \u201cproject\u201d in 2005 precisely because I sensed it would continue to grow. Alongside the artwork, I embraced the challenge of creating merchandise that sensitively commemorates the project. One core principle has always remained clear: I will never place an image of a planting on a T-shirt<\/strong>, not even those marking my own experiences. To do so would risk entering an unsettling territory of exploitation. Instead, these designs communicate the motivations behind the work rather than reproduce its most vulnerable moments of violence and attack.<\/p>

\"cs0ur0rbheqcnmk2zgbde8atg9eydjheoczbmzievn0qubhw.jpg.jpg?w=1140&project=birds-can-fly-107914&v=2\" \u201cEvery body has the right to live without the need to fight\u201d T-Shirt<\/u><\/a><\/p>

This modest venture has never sought mass appeal. It remains deliberately restrained, created for those who feel closely aligned with the work and who choose, through wearing or owning it, to help carry its message into the world.<\/p>

At first glance, the relationship between a site-specific artwork grounded in a simple symbolic action and the promotion of merchandise may appear uneasy. I see these objects differently, as another extension of the project, a format through which its ideas can circulate and conversations can begin.<\/p>

Museums and galleries routinely operate shops filled with apparel and ephemera that promote both artist and exhibition. When artists are no longer alive, we can never truly know how they might have felt about the objects produced in their name. We might hope that the foundations responsible for safeguarding their legacies act with care and sensitivity; yet a visit to the\u00a0Van Gogh Museum\u00a0suggests how quickly integrity can become complicated when merchandise enters the equation. One suspects that\u00a0Vincent van Gogh\u00a0himself might have hesitated at the sight of an embroidered decoration made in his likeness.<\/p>

\"s94lbgmpnqiclvhxurivbplmoqmzpzma4zsr5edub5lcqsrs.jpg.jpg?w=1140&v=2\"Let Every Pansy Bloom T-Shirt<\/u><\/a><\/p>

Designing my own merchandise allows me to remain responsible for how the work is carried forward. Each piece is intended as a conversational starting point. Those who choose to own it participate in the project\u2019s ongoing visibility, not simply as supporters of an artwork, but as allies or ambassadors in a wider commitment to challenging homophobia and transphobia. Keeping these items affordable is important to me; the aim has never been profit, but access.<\/p>

\"uhsvtsedkkttoadxtf9cyahrpmfpq5i62xhnb2vmsiglif9f.png.png?w=1140&v=2\"Above: The Pansy Project as featured in Rebel Garden, Musea Brugge, Belgium. Triennale Brugge, 2024.<\/p>

As I reflect on the milestone of exhibiting this work at Open Eye Gallery, I find myself promoting my photographic archive more explicitly and preparing the project for its next context. After more than twenty years, it feels both timely and necessary for the work to move beyond the festival fringe and into spaces able to hold its depth and complexity.<\/p>

The stories marked through these plantings deserve sustained attention. They ask for spaces where difficult conversations can unfold, particularly within a global climate in which our rights and safety as LGBTQ+ people remain under pressure. Bringing this body of work into museum contexts is therefore not simply an artistic ambition, but a continuation of the project\u2019s responsibility to the communities it serves.<\/p>

This is what I\u2019ll be doing in Liverpool at Open Eye Gallery <\/strong>on March 14th, I\u2019ll be planting and talking about the work in association with Homotopia discover more here.<\/u><\/a><\/p>

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