The sculptures in the exhibition are for touching, sitting on, adding to, and smelling.

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Visitors are invite you to:

• Relax in and / or on the sculptural seats

• Gently ride Mx Walker, the golden Mer-horse

• Look at (and add to) the golden, “shrines” 

• Use items on the making table to craft your own “legitimate” seal  

• Smell the scent which has been added to the sculptures

The installation's name, ‘Lines of Legitimacy’, comes from two items from the collection that Kitt was drawn to:

1.      A hand made DIY certificate celebrating “Crossing the line”

2.      A late 1800s flyer promoting the “legitimate female barman”

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“The use of the word “Legitimate” in the female barman flyer was dead interesting to me. It made me think about how LGBTQIA+ people have validated and celebrated our histories. Our stories have often been given little space in museums and archives. Sometimes being actively removed from collections. So, we have found our own ways to preserve our culture and experiences. I think the DIY nature of the “Crossing the line” certificate (with its handmade wax seal) is a great example of this approach.

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As part of the project, I invited local LGBTQIA+ people to make their own wax seals: celebrating their past, present and future. These have been arranged in a physical line around the gallery. Visitors must pass through this to access the work- creating our own Line of Legitimacy. A portal into local LGBTQIA+ histories and experiences of people who live in the town today”.

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Lady Kitt, 2026

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Mx Walker: 

Mx Walker is a golden, rocking, Mer-horse. I have created the sculpture as a monument to ‘

Mary’ Walker and all my Hartlepudlian, Northeast trans and gender non-conforming

ancestors:

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• those we are aware of

and

• those who identities where hidden or whose histories have been erased

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Living beyond cultural norms of gender in the 1800s must have taken courage, curiosity

and tenacity. I felt to celebrate these qualities I needed a monument of motion, mischief and

participation. I wanted to acknowledge the sea faring histories of Hartlepool. I also wanted to

include mythologies, customs and symbols trans and gender non-conforming people have

claimed for our own. And so, Mx Walker, the golden Mer-horse of Lynn Street, was born.

 

They are a golden, rocking toy with the upper body of a horse and the lower body of a glorious

mer-creature. You are welcome to sit astride Walker and gently rock!

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Symbols of sea horses and merfolk have a long history for the LGBTQIA + community and

particularly for trans people. In the museum collection there is an ornate vase called

‘Sacred to Neptune’ which this work references. You can read more about the vase and its

connection to LGBTQIA+ histories in the object label.

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Walker refers to famous “Mary” Walker, a gender non-conforming person who worked in

Hartlepool as the “legitimate female barman”. Mx is a gender-neutral title (used to replace

Mr or Ms) which is often used by non-binary / gender non-conforming people. 

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You can see a reproduction of the  flyer referencing the “legitimate female barman” and

more info about “Mary” Walker in other parts of the exhibition.

 

 

Lavender hands:

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One of the contemporary objects not exactly in the collection, but connected to

the care of the collection are:

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Purple latex, object handling, gloves

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I was instantly drawn to the gloves for three reasons:

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1.      They represent the (often invisible) labour of museum archivists,

curators and project managers in caring for and sharing LGBTQIA+ histories

2.      They are lavender- a colour associated with LGBTQIA+ communities for

hundreds of years

3.      Latex gloves (particularly ones in colours other than medical blue /

cream) are sometimes used as a symbol of queer identity and sexual

expression

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Objects from the museum collection are presented in the installation as being

“held” by these gloves to:

·       Differentiate between museum objects and new work

·       Acknowledging the ongoing work of curators, conservers, and

archivists in this exhibition. And to celebrate marginalised histories more widely

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“Queer Histories as / and Folk Art” 

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“I often work with museums and archives, making artwork in response to ‘hidden’ histories. Such as those of Disabled, Working Class and LGBTQIA+ communities. Sometimes the histories are just that: hidden. Sadly though, sometimes our stories have been removed or destroyed.  

When ‘legitimate’ institutions like museums do not hold people’s histories, those individuals and groups often create their own systems. Their own, spaces and rituals to validate their experiences and preserve the stories of their shared past. 

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Some LGBTQIA+ people create Drag performances, characters, and costumes. This does not just provide entertainment. The community-focused ways we make drag (often in drag houses or families*) provides ways to keep, share, develop and preserve parts of our culture.

Methods which do not rely on being accepted, welcomed, or constrained by institutions like museums. To me, these ways of preserving marginalized histories are a form of folk art.

 

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Folk Art

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I like what researcher and artist Dr Lucy Wright says about Folk in her  text “Folk is a feminist issue:

 

 “Folk is the stuff we make, do, and think for ourselves … It’s the communion we find with others on our own terms; the entertainments, spaces, structures, landmarks and high days that are meaningful to us, whatever the reason, the power to self-determine beyond any institution……Folk exists outside of and in spite of mainstream provision.  …The absence of records / visibility does not indicate the absence of activity.”

 

Folk art is often referred to as “intangible” heritage. For me, it is also “emotional heritage”. I’m interested in the  inheritance of feelings. How experiencing marginalization shapes our emotional seasons and the stuff we create to mark them. Folk practices invite us to luxuriate in process, community, and feral creativity. Through folk we make the traditions our own and tend to them for those yet to come.

With ‘Lines of Legitimacy’ lets create an environment that encourages exploration, reflection, and folk-sovereignty**. A place which invites you not to “join in” with something static but encourages entangled ways to engage. 

Can you be part of caring for, practicing, evolving and documenting local LGBTQIA+ histories and emotional heritage?

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