The July 2025 exhibition at Pulse & Pickle, “Existence & Resistance”, is both a celebration of trans+ lives and a defiant stand against erasure. It calls to those of us who shift between identities, languages, codes, and expectations—sometimes daily, sometimes invisibly. It connects the exile of those who refuse to be bound by arbitrary borders in the land of gender, with the marginalisation of those whose heritage and loving connections bridge arbitrary borders in our physical landscapes. 

This exhibition offers paths for intersectional solidarity by declaring: to be a migrant is not only to cross national borders. Sometimes it means being displaced or erased within your own country, your own city, your own body. It can mean resisting state, family, or faith-imposed definitions of who you should be, surviving institutions that don’t see you, or navigating systems that were never built for you. 

As we reflect on the theme “Existence & Resistance”, the Pulse & Pickle collective asks: How do we resist as migrants? How do we stay seen and insist on being seen? How do trans and gender-diverse lives embody resistance through everyday presence, care, and joy?

To explore these questions, the Pulse & Pickle collective invites queer, trans, gender-diverse, and/or migrant artists working in photography, painting, and illustration to submit work on the theme “Existence & Resistance”. Chosen works will become part of an exhibition opening in July 2025 that aims to elevate and amplify the urgent demands of this year’s London Trans+ Pride, which returns for its seventh year to central London on 26 July. At a time when trans+ people in the UK are being pushed further to the margins through punitive legislation, inflammatory media narratives, and a stark rollback of rights, we want to demonstrate our unapologetic solidarity with our queer, trans, and gender-diverse community members. 

We want to showcase work that moves between genders, between cultures, between visibility and invisibility – creating a collective record of what it means to exist and to resist in this moment. We want to amplify the urgent demands championed by London Trans+ Pride: 

• a total ban on all forms of conversion therapy, a promise made by the UK government in 2018 but still not honoured

• fully funded gender-affirming care with shorter waiting times, 

• access for young people and adults, and 

• GPs empowered to support our community’s health.   

Priority will be given to portrait and fashion-oriented work, but we warmly welcome other approaches, including documentary, street, conceptual, or staged styles. We invite artists of all backgrounds and experience levels to share their work, with particular encouragement for migrant artists who also identify as trans, non-binary, gender-diverse, or queer.

To apply: please send up to 3 images or visual works that respond to the theme Existence & Resistance, along with a short statement (up to 200 words) explaining how your work connects to the theme. If your work is already printed, please tell us the dimensions so we can consider it for display. Otherwise, all selected works will be printed at A3 size. Please also send us your name, pronouns (if you wish), and a short artist bio (up to 150 words).

Deadlines

Please email your submission to events@pulseandpickle.org by the following times --

• Photography: 11:59pm on Friday 11 July
• Paintings and Illustrations: 11:59pm on Monday 14 July

This exhibition will open in late July 2025 at Pulse & Pickle, a radical cultural centre and community hub in Walthamstow (E17 7LD). The exhibition will last for about a week, and during this time, we will host events in the exhibition space that celebrate our intersectional solidarity and draw together our collective strength, wisdom, and protection for the London Trans+ Pride march.

If you have any questions or access needs, please get in touch. We want to make this opportunity as inclusive and welcoming as possible.

Let’s exhibit together so we can resist—and insist on being seen.