There are many reasons to visit London’s Leadenhall Market — the fact that it’s one of London’s oldest markets, dating back to the 13th century. Or to see it’s gorgeous, award-winning architecture.
The market also served as an inspiration for Harry Potter’s Diagon Alley and was featured in the first movie.
But LGBTQ+ tourists have another reason to visit this wonderful market in the heart of London’s financial district: an art installation, symbols, by the artist Guillaume Vandame, which displays thirty different iterations of the Pride flag.
The project, part of the tenth year of London’s Sculpture in the City presentation of pubic art, is arguably the first time all of the different versions of the Pride flag have been shown together.
Never Miss a Beat
Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights.
This is very important to Vandame, a French-American currently based in London, who tells LGBTQ Nation, “The rainbow, especially, is a symbol that brings people together. It represents the ultimate paradox: something sublime, bold, and beautiful, and at the same time, it is ordinary, universal, and occurring in the natural world. In other words, it suggests that our gender identity and sexual orientation are as beautiful and normal as a rainbow and part of our everyday life.”
How did an exhibition of gay pride flags end up in one of London’s most venerable public spaces?
Vandame was already involved with Sculpture in the City through his creation of the artwork Notice Me (LGBTQIA+ Walk), which was an interactive art project that involved walking between different locations. It was as Vandame walked the streets of London for that project that he had the idea for symbols.
“I had this vision in my head of an artwork which could assemble various Pride flags to signify a meeting [place],” Vandame says, “and that was the starting point.”
The very first Pride flag dates to 1977, when gay rights leader Harvey Milk asked LGBTQ+ artist and activist Gilbert Baker to create a symbol around which the burgeoning gay rights movement could rally.
Baker worked with Lynn Segerblom and James McNamara to create the iconic flag that is today a symbol of LGBTQ+ pride around the world.
But as our understanding of queer identity has evolved, so has the flag, which is part of the reason Vandame created symbols.
“I believe all the [different Pride] flags have equal importance,” Vandame says, “even if many of them are relatively new and haven’t had that much visibility in the public eye. It’s one of the reasons why I presented each flag with the same dimensions and materials and at an equal distance from each other.”
Vandame adds that the creation of new flags creates “a sense of narrative, and the order of the flags tells a story. I believe the original Pride flag will always be the ‘blueprint’ for the way we register each subsequent flag, even with the way the colors or design might change over time with new community groups and flags emerging.”
Vandame is especially happy symbols is being hosted by Leadenhall Market.
“I think Leadenhall Market is iconic and truly magical,” says Vandame. “The way the light comes through the space is both calming and beautiful as an experience. There are moments of grandeur and moments of intimacy. It makes sense that it would be a site in various movies like Harry Potter, and I think that inexplicable quality responds to the importance of the flags in our everyday life, and the way we find love within ourselves, each other, and the beauty of life.”
Vandame also likes that Leadenhall Market, a popular public space, is creating visibility for the flags and LGBTQIA+ people in general.
“This is one of my goals as an artist, trying to create space for the LGBTQIA+ community through my own visual aesthetic, something that crosses over between art and life,” Vandame says. “It’s essential for me to continue doing this as an artist and communicate this message of love as a basic human right. Over these past couple years, it’s been really striking to me how symbols has become an extension of the architecture, landscape, and community in the City of London, as much as a part of our shared histories in the LGBTQIA+ community.”
Since Vandame is an artist, I was curious if he had any ideas for a new Pride flag.
“I love this question and I wish I had a good answer,” he says. “But I have to admit I think they got it right the first time. I believe the original Pride flag and its various iterations will continue to stand the test of time because of its simplicity and universality. One day we might be living in a utopian world with universal peace and equality, and it’s possible we might register the rainbow simply as a rainbow, but until that happens the original Pride flag will always be such a charged symbol and a powerful image of hope, love, and freedom.”
symbols will remain on display at Leadenhall Market through the spring of 2023.
Michael Jensen is an author, editor, and one half of Brent and Michael Are Going Places, a couple of traveling gay digital nomads. Subscribe to their free travel newsletter here.
