In an attempt to create autonomous queer space, Bttm Methodology welcomes the abject, the dissident, the rejected, the overlooked, and the subterranean. We embrace the desire lines that connect us, celebrating queer shame and failure, and uplifting our invisibilised queer histories. Bttm Methodology is an approach to art making, pedagogy and kinship driven by the tenets of CONNECTIVITY, PLEASURE & SUB-VERSION.

Over three days, in the carpark behind and below Artspace Gallery, a permeable Bttm structure will be created from discarded materials gleaned from the b-side of Karangahape Road and surrounding streets. Bttm Methodology will also host daily walks, spongy lunches, discussions and workshops that call in queer and gender diverse artists and the wider public to engage and add to the activations.

Bttm Methodology emerged out of a drifting conversation about glow worms, mushrooms and queer networks, tree hugging/humping, resting, composting and excretion, toilets and cruising. At the soft centre of Bttm Methodology is a love of the temporary, the tidal, and the transitory. An approach to art making, pedagogy and friendship, it is counter, subterranean and passively active, prioritising openness, slowness, listening and the pursuit of pleasure/leisure/desire. Bttm Methodology presents itself as an uncertain manifesto, a list of fluid provocations, questions, and ethical explorations, a soft testing of collaborative queer practice.

Bttm Methodology invites creative contributions of any kind to the themes of queer and trans centred hosting, care and conversation. Seeking to decentralize the hosting practice from the role of curation, Bttm Methodology invites LGBTTQI+ artists and community groups to occupy, hold or co-create the space; to grow and extend practices that encourage experimentation and the deepening of our queer artistic networks across Tāmaki Makaurau. Or, just come along and hang out, lie around, eat, fall asleep…