Courtney Bree
Lesbians are lovely:
type as remembrance and action
For my master’s thesis, I investigated the research question: How can ‘type’ foster the visibility of queer women in Melbourne?
This research was prompted by my experiences as a queer woman in Melbourne, and noticing spaces, events, and considerations for queer women in Melbourne were deteriorating. I wanted to bring visibility to this community through my research. Guided by queer theory, I followed queer methodology and a reflective, action-cycle, practice-based methodology.
I investigated archives in Melbourne that housed typographic artefacts concerning the history of queer women in Melbourne, mostly publications and ephemera. These archives included the ‘Victorian Women’s Liberation and Lesbian Feminist Archive’ at the University of Melbourne and the ‘Crow Collection’ at Victoria University. I digitally documented over 700 artefacts, creating an archive with 9 sub-categories.
From this archive I produced four typefaces, each dedicated to a category. Each letterform was a replication of a letter found on an artefact, each letter representing a person, place, event, or object. The typefaces became means for remembering these stories.
I created three artworks based on the inspiring words on an artefact. Each a call to action, to inspire discourse and dissent against the heteropatriarchy.
#Typography
