Unicorn Artist Guest Blog: David Hutchison

Thursday 15th February 2024

As part of our upcoming Unicorn exhibition at Perth Museum, we have commissioned 6 artists who identify as queer or part of the LGBTQIA+ community to produce new Unicorn-themed artworks exploring the theme of ‘Unicorn hunting in 2023’. We asked each of our 6 artists to write a blog from their perspective about the process and idea behind their unicorn piece, and what the unicorn means to them in 21st-century Scotland.

Unicorn, the debut exhibition from Perth Museum, explores the rich significance of this beloved mythical creature from antiquity to the present day, through art, science, social movements, and popular culture. The unicorn’s enduring presence throughout history and its role as a symbol of Scotland’s changing heritage and identity will be explored through iconic loans from around the world, and interactive displays. The commissioned artworks in this exhibition explore the unicorn as a modern symbol of the LGBTQIA+ community.

This blog is written by our third commissioned artist David Hutchison.

David Hutchison

Missy Hortense On A Pride March

Missy Hortense is really going for it, twirling around, doing the moves, in the Pride March going past the Scottish Parliament. See her wave all those pride flags, so many different ones to choose from, blowing her whistle and seeing if she can get some officers to join in.

I along with other artists in the LGBTQIA+ community were commissioned to each adapt a life-sized horse’s head and create a unicorn for Hunting The Unicorn exhibition at the new Perth Museum.

A review in 2023 found the Met Police to be institutionally racist, misogynistic, and homophobic. Despite this Suella Braverman gave a speech in Sept 2023:

“We pay the police to fight crime. We do not pay them to wave flags at parades, to dance with drag queens or to campaign. That’s why I finally ended all association with Stonewall at the Home Office and why I expect all PCCs (police and crime commissioners) and chief constables to focus on cutting crime and rebuilding confidence, not playing politics.”

Missy Hortense Dances With Pauchle Saorsa

I proposed to take all of these elements and turn the horse’s head into Missy Hortense; a drag police horse unicorn. I will then create a short animation “To Dance With Drag Queens” of Missy dancing to Suella’s words sampled into a rave track, mixed with sound clips from pride marches in Scotland and recent comments made in Parliament. The animation and its audio are intended to provoke that proud feeling you get on a march when that onlooking protestor wearing a “gays are sinners” placard is used as a backdrop to a queer snog selfie.