25.09.2009

These works respond to a tragedy that landed in Ash’s home in September 2009.

Earlier that month one of her closest friends, Jen Baynham, had returned from Australia and was staying with her. On the morning of Saturday 26 September, Jen answered the phone to her distressed 89-year-old mother. Her brother, Ian, had been assaulted the previous night in Trafalgar Square. He had been knocked to the ground by a group of teenage youths who stamped on his chest and head shouting, ‘Faggot! Faggot!’, and left him unconscious.

Never regaining consciousness, Ian died from these injuries 18 days later. Ian’s senseless death politicised Ash’s work. For centuries homophobic and transphobic hatred has made it dangerous to be visible. Progress had given Ian the confidence to be open about who he was. It cost him his life.

Since that night Ash has sought to make sense of why a stranger kills a stranger simply because they are different. Ash’s work explores how being a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer or a-sexual person continues to impact a whole range of people in every walk of life.