Wakefield Museums and Castles

"With this exhibition, I hope that we can bring more awareness and start more conversations about identity – all of us have an identity, so why shouldn’t we talk about it?" - Fern Woodhead

'Boxed In (From Whence You Came)' by Fern Woodhead

Introduction

Boxed In (From Whence You Came) was a brand-new artwork by Pontefract’s own Fern Woodhead (they / them). Fern was aged 18 at the time.

The piece explores Fern’s feelings about “being a queer person in an inherently non-queer society”. The striking oil pastel self-portrait is a response to Fern’s identity as a non-binary person and a lesbian.

The display also featured supporting commentary written by Fern along with personal items they kindly lent for the exhibition. These included the Grayson’s Art Club exhibition catalogue in which they feature, and a hand-made crocheted lesbian pride flag.

Fern hopes that the exhibition will raise awareness and start conversations around sexuality and gender identity. Wakefield Museums and Castles are very proud to acquire and display such an important and inspiring artwork and to showcase exciting local talent like Fern. The acquisition contributes to ongoing work to diversify the collection so that it represents a wide range of people’s lived experiences.

Fern with their finished exhibition at Pontefract Museum

Fern Woodhead's commentary on 'Boxed In (From Whence You Came)'

‘Boxed In (From Whence You Came)’ explores my feelings about being a queer person in an inherently non-queer society. Obviously we’ve made leaps and bounds in terms of queer acceptance both legally and socially, but it’s still incredibly easy to feel, or to be made to feel, like an outsider or like you’re being judged for something that should be seen as completely normal. 

Politically, there are also many who have or currently are expressing incredibly anti-queer opinions which make our community feel isolated and unstable, unsure of where we stand in a supposedly tolerant society.

I am both a lesbian and a nonbinary person, and this piece explores both of those aspects of my identity. The title and subject of the piece comes from feelings of being ‘made wrong’, which I and many other queer people have experienced. 

Fern Woodhead

I spent the majority of my teenage years wishing I could be ‘normal’ and wondering why I had to be different to all my peers. I spent a very long time from the age of twelve questioning my identity and who I was. I knew I was a lesbian from roughly the age of thirteen, but I didn’t ‘officially’ come out until I was around fourteen because I was afraid to admit to myself that I was a lesbian – I think there’s a lot of shame and stigma around the word, and a lot of people associate it with something gross or sexual. 

It can be incredibly isolating to admit that you’re completely uninterested in men when society is so androcentric and it’s easy to feel like you’re alone, especially if you don’t have any lesbian friends who you can talk to about your experiences. 

Even now that I’m older, it sometimes feels strange or even wrong to publicly show affection to girlfriends, and you sometimes get a few funny looks, which I think comes as a shock to a lot of people who don’t realise that we still have a long way to come in terms of acceptance and tolerance. 

I’m very open about being a lesbian now, and I hope that thirteen-year-old me would be proud of how completely unashamed I am of my sexuality. By the time I hit fifteen, I’d accepted my sexuality, but I was now questioning my gender instead (it felt a bit like I’d stepped out of the frying pan and straight into the fire). 

I had a few trans and nonbinary friends at the time, so this wasn’t completely new to me, but it was scary realising that I didn’t really feel ‘normal’. There were a lot of feelings and experiences that I’d been repressing, but once I added them up it started to make a bit more sense to me. 

I wouldn’t say I’m embarrassed to tell people that I’m nonbinary, but sometimes it’s easier to not tell people because they don’t understand (and don’t want to understand either) or they try to convince me that I’m wrong because ‘there are only two genders’. 

I think there’s a lot of misunderstanding when it comes to gender identity, and this certainly isn’t made any better by people in the public eye, especially politicians, spreading misinformation, which only fuels people’s lack of understanding. There also seems to be a lack of teaching about gender identity, or when it is taught about there is a lot of incorrect information, such as ‘nonbinary’ being a third gender, when in fact most would view it as more of an umbrella term for lots of different gender identities. 

Fern holding their artwork against a white wall at Pontefract Museum on install day.

Background to the commission

In 2022 Fern featured on the Channel 4 TV show 'Grayson’s Art Club', presented by Grayson Perry. Fern submitted an artwork to the show in response to the theme ‘Inside my head’. The piece focused on Fern’s feelings of gender dysphoria. It was shown in the Grayson’s Art Club exhibition at the Midlands Art Centre, Birmingham.

Wakefield Museums and Castles commissioned Fern to produce a new piece about their gender identity for display at Pontefract Museum. It was also added to the Museums’ permanent collection. 

Fern has also written the above interpretation to accompany the piece. They have kindly also agreed to record an oral history. 

This all contributes to our ongoing work to diversify our collection. We are working to make sure that a wide range of people’s lived experiences are represented by our collections and programming.

Fern arranging their additional loaned objects inside the Pontefract Museum foyer display