"More than Friends": Bisexual Perspectives in Roberta M. Graham's Fallen Angel and Helen Chadwick's Lofos Nymphon

This article traces Roberta M. Graham's and Helen Chadwick's creative and loving friendship through close readings of Graham's *Fallen Angel* (1986) and Chadwick's *Lofos Nymphon* (1987), exploring how these photographic installations illustrate what Clare Hemmings has described as a "bisexual perspective". While the discourse around both artists' work thoroughly documents their male collaborators, their relationship with, and influence on, one another has remained unexamined. When and why does bisexuality disappear, and with what effects? How does partiality and in-betweenness pose problems for the present-day imperative of queer artistic production to be visible? Deploying an embodied approach that draws on interviews with Graham and research on Chadwick's archive, I narrate my longing for a bisexual genealogy through a series of "scenes" that expose the erotic and ethical terrain that often characterises such queer archival encounters. What insights does a bisexual perspective offer queer art history in its attempts to resist the discipline's normative, canonising tendencies?

Authors

Publication Details

Journal
British Art Studies
Published
2025-01-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.17658/issn.2058-5462/issue-27/npearce
Primary Topic
American Literature and Culture
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
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article

"More than Friends": Bisexual Perspectives in Roberta M. Graham's Fallen Angel and Helen Chadwick's Lofos Nymphon

Nick Pearce
British Art Studies
American Literature and Culture
article

"More than Friends": Bisexual Perspectives in Roberta M. Graham's Fallen Angel and Helen Chadwick's Lofos Nymphon

Nick Pearce
article en

Abstract

This article traces Roberta M. Graham's and Helen Chadwick's creative and loving friendship through close readings of Graham's *Fallen Angel* (1986) and Chadwick's *Lofos Nymphon* (1987), exploring how these photographic installations illustrate what Clare Hemmings has described as a "bisexual perspective". While the discourse around both artists' work thoroughly documents their male collaborators, their relationship with, and influence on, one another has remained unexamined. When and why does bisexuality disappear, and with what effects? How does partiality and in-betweenness pose problems for the present-day imperative of queer artistic production to be visible? Deploying an embodied approach that draws on interviews with Graham and research on Chadwick's archive, I narrate my longing for a bisexual genealogy through a series of "scenes" that expose the erotic and ethical terrain that often characterises such queer archival encounters. What insights does a bisexual perspective offer queer art history in its attempts to resist the discipline's normative, canonising tendencies?

British Art Studies(27)
Gender equality
Openalex Percentile: Top 84%
American Literature and Culture
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"More than Friends": Bisexual Perspectives in Roberta M. Graham's Fallen Angel and Helen Chadwick's Lofos Nymphon — Nick Pearce · British Art Studies (2025) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS