Martin Firrell

British, born 1963

Martin Firrell is a British public artist long associated with the international out-of-home industry. His works challenge unjust power systems of all kinds, including patriarchal power, the oppression of women and non-heterosexuals, and the heteronormative status quo. He uses language to engage directly with the public, provoking dialogue about more equitable social organisation. The artist's reported aim is 'to make the world more humane'. His work has been summarised as 'art as debate'.

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curated by Barbara Ulbrist

Nørdern contemporary, Copenhagen

All Varieties

2024

Digital Billboards
UK-wide June-July 2024

All Varieties

is a nationwide public artwork celebrating the labels that help people express their individuality and define their place in the world.

A label can be a box, a prison, a way of controlling how people are regarded. Or it can be a liberation. The right label frees you to tell the world exactly who you really are.

All Varieties

celebrates the proliferation of labels in all their glorious variety in progressive, inclusive, confident and modern Britain.

By celebrating publicly labels like, ‘they/them’, ‘gender non-conforming', 'gay', ‘femme’ and ‘dyke’, Great Britain sends world-leading equality messages to the international community.

"All Varieties is a wonderful thing when the tide of justice around the world is moving out, leaving our beach of fellowship, love and solidarity all the more bare." ~ Stephen Fry.

All Varieties

is sponsored by Nørdern and Berry Bros. & Rudd and supported by media partners JCDecaux, Clear Channel, Alight Media, Mass Media, Elonex, Out Of Hand, KBH, BlowUP Media, Outsmart and Nonsensical, the TikTok agency.

All Varieties'

museum partner is Queer Britain, the UK's first and only LGBT+ museum.

They/Them

2024

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) advises using ‘they’ for 'a person whose sense of personal identity does not correspond to conventional sex and gender distinctions, and who has typically asked to be referred to as 'they' (rather than 'he' or 'she')’.

'They' as a singular gender neutral pronoun was the Merriam-Webster Dictionary’s word of the year, 2019.

The earliest recorded use of 'they' as a gender neutral pronoun comes from the 14th Century in a poem titled

Guillaume de Palerme,

rendered into English as

William the Werewolf.

Gender Non-Conforming

2024

Gender creates expectations in society about how a person of a given gender will appear and behave. Anyone who appears or behaves differently could be described as ‘gender non-conforming’.

'Gender non-conforming' often describes a pioneer who intentionally subverts gender norms. Being gender non-conforming doesn’t necessarily mean someone is transgender or nonbinary, although they could be both.

Gender non-conformity is nothing new.

In the mid 18th Century, Giuseppe Bonito (1707 - 1789) painted 'Il Femminiello' a portrait of one of Naples' femminielli (literally, ‘little female-men’).

Femminielli were embraced as a ‘third sex’. In particular, they were thought to bring good luck so Neapolitans would often take them out gambling and even bring their babies to be blessed by them.

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2024

If someone describes themselves as ‘bi’ (from bi- + -sexual), they are attracted to both same-gendered and different-gendered partners.

Being bi is as old as the hills. The Ancient Greeks preferred to think in terms of 'aphrodisia' - sexual acts that gave pleasure, regardless of whether they were performed with a man or a woman.

Japanese writer, Ihara Saikaku (1642 - 1693) published

The Life of an Amorous Man

, a novel following the life and times of a bi man, as long ago as 1682.

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Ze/Zir

2024

In 1864, a writer known now only as J. W. L. coined a new gender neutral pronoun 'ze' and encouraged lexicographers to include it in their dictionaries.

'Ze' was added to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary in 1934.

In more recent times, the world-renowned Oxford English Dictionary has led the way with excellent entries for 'ze' (June 2018) and 'zir' (March 2019).

An OED lexicographer explained, 'In the case of ‘ze’, evidence stretches back as far as 1864, although use becomes more visible and sustained from the 1980s and 90s onwards. The earliest evidence for ‘zir’ is from 1993.'

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Trans

2024

'Trans', from 'transgender', was originally used to describe a person whose sense of personal identity and gender does not correspond to their sex at birth.

These days 'trans' is often used as an inclusive term for any or all non-conventional gender identities.

Historic England, the clever people who preserve Britain's heritage, hold a wonderful archive of references to trans people, history and activism.

"The interwar idea of ‘sex change’ implied that sex or gender fluidity was possible, and that individuals might choose their sex."

It was not until the 1950s that transitioning became possible in Britain. The great British trans pioneers were Michael Dillon (1915-1962) and Roberta Cowell(1918-2011).

April Ashley (1935-2021) campaigned to have her gender legally recognised. This was eventually made possible by the Gender Recognition Act 2004 and April was awarded an MBE for services to transgender equality at Buckingham Palace in 2012.

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Femme

2024

Lesbian communities created the term ‘femme’ in the 1940s. ‘Femme’ referred to a feminine lesbian in a relationship with a masculine (or butch) lesbian.

‘Femme’ is now used more broadly and can include bisexual and queer women; trans and nonbinary people; and gay, bi, and queer men (where the word is usually shortened to ‘fem’).

There are also some terrific ‘femme’ variations: 'High femme' describes an ultra-feminine presentation that could include wearing the colour pink, glitter, and sequins.

'Hard Femme' describes someone with an edge to their femininity; they may wear leather, spiked accessories, and fabulous platform boots.

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Gay

2024

In the 12th Century, the word ‘gay’ meant ‘carefree’, ‘full of mirth’, or ‘bright and showy’. By the 17th Century, it had also come to mean ‘addicted to pleasures and dissipations’ and ‘of loose and immoral life'.

In the 19th Century, ‘gay’ referred to a woman who worked as a prostitute. A ‘gay man’ was, ironically, someone who slept with lots of female prostitutes.

By the 1930s, ‘gay’ had assumed its modern meaning and by 1955 it was formally defined as meaning ‘homosexual’.

Gay men, themselves, encouraged the use of the term ‘gay’, feeling that ‘homosexual’ sounded too clinical and was a bit of a mouthful.

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Boys Kissing

2024

14 of the artworks in

All Varieties

are in black and white, and 2 are in colour.

The colour artworks are based on two romantic illustrations sourced from the 1950s.

The images are of traditional couples kissing, each couple composed of a man and a woman. The artwork,

Boys Kissing,

takes the male partner from each couple and places them together in a loving embrace.

This introduces a colour-feeling around ‘intimacy at variance', which contrasts with the more factual narratives of the black and white labels.

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Dyke

2024

The word ‘dyke’ is thought to derive from a mid 19th-century derogatory term, ‘bulldyke’, but its exact origin is uncertain.

Like the word ‘queer’, ‘dyke’ has been reclaimed by the LGBT+ community. There is power in reclaiming a slur word because it makes the word worthless to outsiders who would use it against a particular community.

There is still some debate about whether or not 'dyke' is offensive and its use by people outside of the LGBT+ community is generally discouraged.

But it is also true to say that there is no substitute. ‘Lesbian’ is not an adequate substitute because it only describes a woman’s sexual orientation whereas ‘dyke’ also refers to her powerful masculine energy.

As one proud dyke put it, 'I’m not a lesbian. I don’t strictly identify as a woman, and I’m not transgender. I’m a dyke.'

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Non-Binary

2024

When someone identifies as ‘non-binary’, their gender identity is neither male nor female.

Non-binary identities have been recognised for millennia by different cultures around the world.

Inanna was the Mesopotamian goddess of sex, war, and justice, believed to have the power to change a person’s gender. Unsurprisingly, people we would regard today as non-binary were drawn to her cult.

Her priests and followers were noted for their gender-fluid identities, blurring or confounding the gender binary.

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Straight

2024

The term ‘straight’ appeared as gay slang in the mid 20th Century.

'Straight' is derived from ‘to go on the straight and narrow’ meaning to stop living life as a gay man.

Its meaning has changed over time and now it is simply a colloquial term for being heterosexual.

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Lesbian

2024

The great poetess Sappho (c.610 BCE–c.570 BCE) wrote poems that revealed both her lyric genius, and her erotic appreciation of young women:

"...with pure, sweet oil ...
you anointed me, 
and on a soft, gentle bed...
you quenched your desire..." ~ Sappho

Sappho's home on the island of Lesbos gave rise to the term ‘lesbian’ to describe same-sex relationships amongst women.

(Lesbos islanders sued to reclaim the word ‘lesbian’ for their own exclusive use in 2008. And lost.)

It's difficult to overstate Sappho's importance in the ancient world. Plato hailed her as ‘the tenth muse’ and the scholars of ancient Alexandria placed her amongst the Nine Lyric Poets they admired above all others.

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Girls Kissing

2024

This is the second colour artwork in

All Varieties.

The women have been extracted from traditional 1950s heterosexual embraces and placed together in a same-sex clinch.

The flowers in the original 1950s illustrations have been increased in profusion to echo the great poet Sappho's fondness for young women adorned with flowers.

Queer

2024

'Queer' entered the English language in the early 16th Century, describing anything strange, odd, peculiar or eccentric.

By the late 19th Century the word was being used to describe gay men. 'Queer' was used frequently, but not exclusively, in a derogatory way.

In the 1960s and 1970s, gay liberationists began to reclaim 'queer' as a celebration of difference and visibility.

Since the 1990s, queer's meaning and use has changed considerably, and it is now regarded as a respectful and inclusive term for the diverse sexualities and genders of the LGBT+ community.

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Cisgender

2024

'Cisgender' is a relatively new term, appearing in the Oxford English Dictionary for the first time in 1997.

'Cisgender' can be used to describe ‘a person whose sense of personal identity and gender corresponds to his or her sex at birth’.

According to the OED, the prefix 'cis-' derives from Latin, meaning 'on this side of', and typically forms words in contrast to 'trans'.

For example, 'cisalpine' means 'on this side of the Alps' and 'transalpine' means 'on the other side of the Alps'.

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Pansexual

2024

The Cambridge Dictionary defines 'pansexual' as ‘sexually or romantically attracted to people of any gender’.

'Pansexual' has been included in the OED since the early 1900s and its current definition has been in use since the 1960s.

Pansexuality is different from bisexuality. 'Pan-' means 'all' so pansexuality is an attraction to all gender identities or an attraction regardless of gender identity, whereas bisexuality is the attraction to multiple gender identities.

The difference is subtle and some people use pansexual and bisexual interchangeably.

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All Varieties

All Varieties'

museum partner is Queer Britain, the UK's first and only LGBT+ museum.

view more Martin Firrell works

selected by Barbara Ulbrist

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All artworks courtesy of the artist. Copyright Martin Firrell 1996-2024. Website copyright Martin Firrell Company Ltd. Registered in England and Wales no.7337269.