Press Release
‘David Hoyle: Parallel Universe’ A Photobook by Holly Revell
“I went out one night and it lasted three years.” David Hoyle”
‘David Hoyle: Parallel Universe’ is a limited edition book of photography and artworks emerging from the intimate eight-year collaboration between avant-garde queer performance legend David Hoyle and acclaimed London performance photographer Holly Revell. As well as more than 300 extraordinary unpublished images of David backstage and on stage, the book features over 25 unique artworks created by David especially for the book, his infamous ‘Men’ speech, anecdotes from some of David’s collaborators including Penny Arcade and Christeene and texts by Lois Keidan (Live Art Development Agency), Paul Darling (David's curator) and Nick Blackburn (David's producer).
David Hoyle has been discussing issues with gender and current politics with audiences since the 1990s. Without him the gender fluid drag we have become accustomed to in recent years might not exist. He has been a major influence and inspiration, he is a force of nature, powerful, political, hilarious and articulate, yet vulnerable to the core. There is nobody like him.
Holly Revell found her place on the underground performance-art circuit in London 10 years ago making her mark with her ‘DARKROOM’ photo-booth installations which offered audiences at art and cabaret events a live photographic experience, this is how she first met and photographed David Hoyle.
Holly and David have developed their relationship through an ongoing performance from David to Holly’s camera. Having spent so much time sharing the intimacy of his dressing room, Holly’s photographs have become more and more personal and raw. They document the highs and lows of David’s performance processes from the calm at the start of the night to the animated character shots when David is high on adrenalin and in full performance mode to the raw exhaustion and anti-climax that can sometimes follow a mind-blowing show.
The photos in the book are also a record of the many wonderful costumes and make-up applications that David parades, with the talented hand of Thom Shaw, who is responsible for a lot of the 'macquilage' and pulling together of David’s DIY looks, appearing throughout. David also wears Rick Owen’s fashions in a series of the images in his own unique way.
Holly is a firm believer in the necessity for good quality, honest documentation of queer culture, its preservation and ensuring its place in history, hence this book which will not only be a must have for David’s fans but will inform and inspire future generations to come.
This book is an intimate peak behind the magicians curtain.
You may purchase it on Holly’s website or from some bookshops in London including Foyles, LADA Unbound, The Photographers Gallery, Gays the Word, Donlon Books and Bookseller Crow for £35. http://www.hollyrevell.co.uk/shop/davidhoyleparalleluniverse
“A provocative profound and perceptive artwork featuring the enfante terrible of queer culture”.
Peter Tatchell, Human Rights Activist
“This is our history and it must be preserved and celebrated! Our queer prophets were put here on earth to inspire, to educate, to mock and celebrate life in spite of the often dire state above ground. David Hoyle was there, and will continue to be here, to navigate us through dissent”.
Matt Lambert, Filmmaker and Photographer
“Consider everything David Hoyle does says and wears. I always do and its helped me immensely”.
Princess Julia, DJ, Writer and Style Icon
“This publication is an act of love: it’s been produced in a labour of love by Holly Revell; it’s testament to a long and loving relationship between photographer and artist; and it’s been made possible by the love of David’s fans. Through unseen images, and notes and fragments from an artist’s life, Parallel Universe beautifully paints, what Morrissey would call, a ‘vulgar picture’ of David Hoyle, icon and iconoclast”.
Lois Keidan, Co-Founder/Co-Director, Live Art Development Agency (LADA)