Glitter is not only a dazzling adornment, but also a symbol of queerness, a natural occurrence and a cultural phenomenon. We can learn from its mesmeric, fluctuating qualities and disseminating form. Scarlet Aylmer shares what draws her to glitter…
Glitter from a Queer Perspective
Contemporary queer culture has been heavily associated with glitter. The unabashed usage of glitter in media portrayals of queer communities often presents queer culture as kitsch or garish. Shows such as RuPaul’s drag race capitalise upon its inherently dazzling and enticing qualities. This kind of of performative expressionism is disparaged due to its “crass” or “tacky” qualities, which can be criticised on a homophobic basis, as the use of glitter should not be classed as wholly superficial. The conspicuous nature of glitter can be linked to a defiance against oppression, showing ‘pleasure and power of creativity in queer fashion’ (Moore, 2018: p8). In light of the AIDs crisis and everyday homophobic assaults on the queer community, the willingness to exist bright and sparkling is a defiant one. The desire to sparkle is an innate form of expression, not limited to queer people but used as an expression of life that should be fought for.
The attraction to sparkling dress is not an exclusively queer, western phenomenon, and can be understood through a wider cultural perspective. Victoria Rivers describes in her book The Shining Cloth: Dress & Adornment that Glitters, that ‘the embellishment with glittering substance is a worldwide and ancient practise’ (Rivers, 2003: p6). Reflective substances are synonymous with the sun’s protective, magical qualities, commonly used in dress of worship – ‘banishing evil blackness to the purity of day’ (Rivers, 2003: p6). This light worship has relied on a sense of scarcity. Precious shining materials were only available to the few, traded to create wealth and interactions between cultures, the basis of societies (Rivers, 2003). Worship in western civilizations has translated this to a sense of “royalty” through the use of refined glitters, expensive metals and stones. The self is immortalized in these precious objects, as they are passed down through generations. The irony of queer slang such as “queen” “royalty”, and attraction to opulent dress presents a kind of self-royalty, a “releasing” from antiquated forms of worship and hierarchy, and a metaphorical protection against dark outer forces of society.
It can be said that glitter is used in drag and queer fashion not only for its bright qualities but its fluctuating, boundary-less form. Turner Prize Nominee Sin Wai Kin uses drag and glitter to question social boundaries and societal dogmas. The act of viewing glitter pauses us in a moment of mesmerisation, transported from the self. Kin makes use of this to undo binaries not only between man and woman, but life, death, self and other, dreaming and waking (Tate, 2022). We are dazzled, met with the intangible, non-binaries of the self. Queer theory extends past itself in the sense that it ‘goes everywhere’ just like glitter. Queerness can be seen as something earthly and magical, as something special yet hidden. Take Derek Jarman’s Ariel character from Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’- his glittery body is only “seen” by those he wishes to, repressed and hidden yet holding magical powers. Queerness opens to us a fourth space, ‘a dimension in which we can express freely’ (Moore, 2018) – and glitter is the visual portal through which this exists.
Natural Glitter
We see glitter all the time in the natural world – the stars in the night sky, the sun rippling off of the ocean and we are paused, in an almost spiritual occurrence. Humans’ attraction to glitter links to the feeling of connectedness to the ‘sublime’, something that, as humans, we can do nothing but attempt to recreate. Glitter encapsulates Elaine Scarry’s definition of beauty in her 2001 book as the perpetual duplicating of a moment, encouraging a replication of a sensation carried out across time (Scarry, 2001), with an enigma of reflections (replications). It is a symbol for something intangible and unfathomably beautiful, fleeting yet serendipitous. Peter Doig creates an unbounding sense of glitter in his piece ‘Blotter’ (1993). The impressionistic speckles, like sparkles, draw you in, swirling you around the sheer expanse of the painting with the perspective placing you so you are almost touched by the ripples of the reflective figure. The original name for this piece ‘Blotter’ was to describe the moment of absorption into a landscape as well as the painting process used. The viewer, like the paint, dissipates, soaked up into their surroundings. It is interesting to note that ‘Blotter’ can refer to paper carriers of drugs like LSD, which is associated with the feeling of ‘god’ or sublime connectedness. The meditative act of viewing glitter becomes poignant in this natural, timeless state through our loss of ego and gained connectedness.
This human desire to recreate moments of glitter is ancient and spiritual. Light reflecting off water is one of the oldest forms of experiencing glitter. Victoria Rivers states in her 2003 book that we were attracted to shining pools of water in the desert, the only place in which we saw our reflections ‘manifestations of our souls’ (Rivers, 2003:p6). Bill Viola believes that his art is “living” in the sense that his video works manipulate the flow of electrons around a screen like ‘electronic water’, capturing a sense of abundance through the interactions of water and light (Louisiana Chanel, 2019). Not to mention the elemental factors of this glitter being light and water – the essential breeders of life. In the winter months, when the light shines less often, we create our own mesmeric moments of light through our worship of the sun. Religious winter holidays like Diwali, Hanukkah, Chinese New Year, Eid, and Christmas, all have an emphasis on the worship of light, specifically this twinkling and repetitive glitter-like light that we use to decorate these holidays with. Glitter is small repetitions of the sun that we can possess, the reflection of the sun that we can see. We formulate ways that we may not only adorn ourselves with glitter to project our own inner light, but to surround ourselves with sparkles.
Bibliography
Art Basel (2021) Meet the Artists | Sin Wai Kin [Online] [Accessed 20 November 2022]
Doig, P. (1993) Blotter. Oil on Canvas, 136 x 29cm, John Moores Gallery, Liverpool.
Dorwart, L. (2022) Inside the Fascinating History of Glitter and Gay Culture. [Online] [Acessed on 05 January 2023]
FunFilums (2015)The Tempest Youtube [Online] [Accessed 20 December 2021] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qheHYn3rLY
Louisiana Channel (2019) Bill Viola Interview: Cameras are Keepers of the Souls. [Online] [Accessed 11 December 2022]
Moore, M. (2018) Fabulous : The Rise of the Beautiful Eccentric New Haven: Yale University Press.
National Museums Liverpool. Blotter [Online] [Accessed 20 December 2022] https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/artifact/blotter
Rivers, V. (2003) The shining cloth : dress & adornment that glitters. London: Thames and Hudson.
Scarry, E. (2001) On beauty and being just. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Tate (2022) Sin Wai Kin [Online] [Accessed 06 January 2023] https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-liverpool/turner-prize-2022/sin-wai-kin
The Tempest (1979) Jarman, D. [Film] Warwickshire: Boyd’s Company.
Tate (2022) Sin Wai Kin – ‘I want people to exist in my world’ | Turner Prize Nominee 2022 | Tate [Online] [Accessed 14 December 2022] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_vvZHK3ykE
The Reflecting Pool (1977-79) Viola, B.[Film]produced in association with V Lab at WNET/Thirteen, New York and the Artists’ Television Workshop at WXXI-TV, Rochester.
Wai Kin, S. (2022) A Dream of wholeness in parts / Its Always You. Video / Installation, In: Turner Prize 2022, Tate Liverpool. 20 October 2022 – 19 March 2023
Wymer, R. (2005) Derek Jarman. Manchester: Manchester University Press (British film makers).
Bio: Scarlet Aylmer is currently studying a BA in Fine Art at Manchester School of Art, yet she was born and raised in Bristol. She is multimedia artist, her practice spanning painting, film, installation, poetry and (her most favoured) craft. Growing up around the exuberant maximalism of hodgepodge festival decor and her mother’s prodigious craft drawer, her work takes on a kitsch, camp, often surrealist attitude. Despite a certain joy in juxtaposition and uncanny outcomes, Scarlet produces an underscore of delicacy and intimacy with tactile forms and materiality. Pieces roam between the grotesque, domestic and sublime, to leave space for conflict and nuance in ourselves and our desires. Scarlet became fascinated (obsessed) with glitter and its cultural influence late last year, as we moved on from the summer into darker winter months, which is when she wrote an extended version of this essay. Recent work inquires in to slugs, their slimy trails an alarming sign of vermin, or tell-tale trails leftover by fairies.
Header image: Photo by Jack Van Hel
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