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2022
Digital billboards
3 of 4 from
Pride 50
480 x 720px, 864 x 576px, 1080 x 1920px jpeg RGB colour
17 January - 6 February 2022
UK-wide
Firrell had lunch with Quentin Crisp in New York in 1997. The meeting had a far-reaching influence on the artist and a number of works refer to, or feature, Crisp.
Martin Firrell and Quentin Crisp at the Cooper Square Restaurant, New York City, 2 November 1997
Quentin Crisp was well on his way to becoming (in)famous when the first Gay Pride march took place in the UK in July 1972.
He had already been featured in an eponymous
World in Action
documentary filmed in his room in a London boarding house (26 mins, first transmitted 6 July 1970).
Many young people first encountered the possibility of living a queer life through Crisp's autobiography
The Naked Civil Servant
and John Hurt's extraordinary portrayal of Crisp in the TV adaptation of the same title.
Civil Servant Made Me Queer
riffs on the title of Crisp’s autobiography as well as suggesting to the uninitiated that the British Civil Service can have a profound queering effect on the young and innocent.
Civil Servant Made Me Queer
is one of 4 artworks created to herald the 50th anniversary year of the first Gay Pride march in the UK.
