In September a new collaborative film, ‘The Toilet’, premiered in Reykjavík.
‘The Toilet’ is a quirky animation that weaves together personal accounts from transgender, disabled and Muslim people, who share the trials and tribulations of accessing and using public toilets in a society where some are made to feel welcome and others are not.
The film is part of Around The Toilet, an award winning ARHC funded arts-based research project, which Drake Music is involved in via our Associate Gemma Nash.
The premiere was organised by Tabú, Trans Ísland and Samtökin ’78 – and was be the first time that ‘The Toilet’ is shown in a public setting before it continues its international tour.
The toilet is often thought to be a mundane space, but for those who lack adequate or accessible toilet provision on a daily basis, toilets become a crucial practical issue which can create and reaffirm feelings of exclusion and regulation.
Disabled people, for example, frequently report that ‘accessible’ toilets are not accessible enough, while other studies show that diminishing numbers of public toilets can prevent older people leaving the house.
Toilets can also present a stark visual and material enactment of a gender binary in ways that can be problematic for trans, genderqueer or non-binary people.
Thinking around toilets and their function as material as well as socio-cultural environments presents an opportunity to consider forms of identity in multi-faceted ways.
Find out more
If you would like to know more about this project visit the Around The Toilet website or contact Drake Music’s co-investigator for the project, Gemma Nash.
