Culture in Norwich: David Shenton: Kindly Ease the Tension

Culture in Norwich: David Shenton: Kindly Ease the Tension

Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery’s galleries hold a wealth of creativity– from historic fine art to contemporary perspectives.

The must-see exhibition of the moment? David Shenton: Kindly Ease the Tension.

Showcasing the work of pioneering British cartoonist David Shenton, curated by Ian Giles and Norfolk Museums Service’s Ruth Battersby, this is a bold and playful exploration of LGBTQ+ life in Britain in tandem with Shenton’s own experiences. From cleverly designed knitwear to poignant portrayals of the impact of the AIDS epidemic to tongue in cheek scenes that’ll make you chuckle.

We sat down with David to find out more about his first-ever retrospective, his life as an artist and his links to Norwich!

Image: Nick Warner

---

Congratulations on the launch of your exhibition book, which you celebrated at the Quentin Blake Illustration Centre in London over the weekend.

How does it feel to have your work exhibited in the retrospective Kindly Ease the Tension at Norwich Castle?

I’ve never had a retrospective, and all of a sudden, my work, which has really just been my job and what I did just to get paid, becomes something else and it’s looked at differently.

It’s quite unnerving when you think I could have drawn that better, but you don’t think about that when you’re working. You’ve just got to get it in by six o’clock! Most of the things I did were for newspapers, and so the quality is not as though I’d spent three weeks doing it, but then the jokes wouldn’t work.

What attracted you to Norwich? Why did you choose to return to live here in recent years?

I got my degree in Loughborough, and then I went on to become a teacher- I did an Art Teacher’s Certificate at Leeds University. After that, I used the Times Educational Supplement- a paper with jobs in the back. I just went for all the nice places in the country. It’s quite nice to go to North Northumberland and down to Devon for the day for an interview!

When I came to Norwich, the person interviewing was from Manchester, like me. We got on like a house on fire. And so, I got my first teaching job.

I lived for almost 20 years in Norwich, Fakenham, and Reepham. Then I thought I had to live in London because I was missing out on something as an illustrator and cartoonist. And because of the AIDS crisis, I was working on health leaflets and with the Terence Higgins Trust, so I needed to go to meetings there.

I stayed [in London] for 22 years, then decided I’d like to come back to Norwich because London had changed in that time.

You didn’t set out to be a cartoonist. How did it come about?

Quite by accident, really. I had an exhibition in Manchester; it was reviewed in The Guardian. And I thought, ‘other people should know about this’. I sent it to magazines, but nobody else took any notice. So, instead of writing a letter, I did a scurrilous cartoon and although they didn’t review the exhibition, they said, “Can we have more cartoons?”.

That’s how I became a cartoonist.

It was mostly LGBT newspapers- Gay News was first. From there, it blossomed.

It worked because I was cheeky. In The Guardian, Steve Bell (then cartoonist for The Guardian) would be away and it would say, “Steve Bell will be back next week”. I thought, ‘Why don’t they get somebody else in when he’s not there? I can do that!’ So, I sent in a cartoon strip called ‘Steve Bell will be back next week’ and they published it.

Then, I started doing them every time he was away, but they had to have them in stock, so they couldn’t be of the moment. They had to be generally topical! Ultimately, I was in there for 14 years, but only when Steve Bell was away.

The exhibition has a lot of wonderful textiles (including a scarf, t-shirt, duvet and knitwear) and you’ve even founded a men’s knitting group in Norwich. How can people find out more about this?

I’ve knitted since I was a child. In the 1950s, after we’d had our tea, my mother would send us off to different neighbours so she could have a rest, which is where I learned to knit.

I could knit a decent jumper by the time I was eight or nine, but my dad decided boys shouldn’t do that, and once he threw my knitting on the fire, which made me determined to do it more. I don’t know about you, but if anybody says you shouldn’t be doing that, you go out and do it.

When I went to art school, I was a proficient knitter. I studied printed textiles, but I knitted a lot on the bus, on the tube. I’d get called names, but I just thought it was- and still is- a kind of political gesture. But told gently.

Simple things like men holding hands. I made a double shirt that only has three sleeves, so we had to hold hands, for Pride for me and my partner at the time. I didn’t think it was an exhibition piece; it was me being defiant. (Today, you can see the shirt as part of the exhibition, or in the Museum of Norwich’s permanent collection.)

The men’s knitting group is at Marzano’s in The Forum. It takes place on the second Sunday of every month (2pm – 4pm) and is open for everybody who identifies as he/him. It’s an inclusive sort of exclusive.

Kindly Ease the Tension is a commentary on LGBTQ+ Britain in tandem with your own life. Why do you think it’s important to share yours and others’ experiences? (Both the humorous and serious.)

The gay liberation movement started in 1971 or ’72, when I was 22. Then, it was called the Gay Liberation Front (GLF).

Today, the LGBTQ+ is a community for people that want to belong but also keep their own identity. Young people have a full life in front of them, so it’s easier to say, “I’m not specifically that. And I’m not specifically the other, but I still belong to this big community.”

All the exhibition pieces are gentle, which is more powerful [than if they weren’t]. If the impact lasts longer, if it’s funny, if people think ‘actually, I shouldn’t have laughed at that’, it’s great. I make these points, and people get it.

Your work wasn’t always purposely given a message of defiance, but it’s a recurring theme. Is this something you hope visitors take away from the exhibition?

The whole exhibition is to calm things down because the world is so overwhelming, isn’t it? If you start reading and believing everything you read, you’re going to go mad.

In the final room, there are all these little arms holding up placards, and that’s the last thing I drew- using instructions from knitting patterns. In fact, ‘Kindly Ease the Tension’ comes from a knitting pattern (minus the ‘Kindly’).

Here, visitors can fill in pieces of paper. Looking at them, they’re all saying something kind. It’s a kind of defiance by not being defiant.

Was it difficult to decide what to include?

Well, I had got two curators, Ruth Battersby from the Costume and Textiles Department at Norwich Castle, and the other Ian Giles from London, who knew my history and [my book] Forty Lies – an anagram of Life Story, so I had two more perspectives!

The final balance is great. We strike a happy medium, where anybody can go in and visit with confidence.

Community is an important part of your work. Tell us about some of the events being held alongside the exhibition, such as Forty Lies and True Stories Live.

There’s lots going on alongside the exhibition.

On the first Tuesday of every month, we bring out the stuff that’s a bit more explicit, but still funny and still important.

I’m also doing a drawing class where we’re drawing the exhibition from a different perspective. We’re filling the room with beanbags, so you have to lie down and look up and take in the little details, like those lovely grates.

And then I’m doing a story time from Forty Lies (14 November) and a True Stories Live (9 January) where I’ll be telling several stories from my life. I usually co-host True Stories Live at Norwich Arts Centre with Lucy Farrant. (The next one is 1 November. And we’re starting a podcast, with a recorded story, a live story and then another from the vaults. Watch this space!

Are you currently working on anything?

At the moment, I’m busy talking to groups because the exhibition has caused a lot of interest, including two talks at Norwich University of the Arts for Illustration and Graphics.

But I have managed to get a day off, which I always make time for, volunteering at Whitlingham Country Park to do a bit of trimming, mowing and helping at events!

Finally, what is the most unexplainable thing that’s ever happened to you?

Well, I fell over on Saturday- I’ve got a big bump. I had Crocs on and my glasses have focal lenses, so I didn’t see the step.

I was carrying a cheese sandwich, so, I just fished the cucumber out of it to put on my head. I suppose that’s the unexpected thing that happened!

You can see David Shenton: Kindly Ease the Tension at Norwich Castle until 10 January 2027. The exhibition is included in general admission- adults from £15.30, children from £13.05, pre-book online for the best prices, twilight ticket 1 hour before close £2.50.