Seven Minutes in Heaven With Artist And Activist Annie Rose Malamet

The driving force behind everything I do is at a base level, making things accessible.

Welcome to “Seven Minutes in Heaven,” GO Magazine’s interview series that profiles a different queer babe each day, by asking them seven unique (and sometimes random) questions. Get to know the thoughts, feelings, and opinions of the groundbreaking, fierce forces-of-nature in the queer community!


I’m super excited to feature Annie Rose Malamet, an artist, DIY curator, activist and educator.

Photo by Laura Du Vé

I started following Annie on Instagram after hearing about her solo art exhibition, “w4w,” and she shares the best lez content. Whether it be her lesbian horror film recommendations, complicated criticisms of fatphobia, hilarious memes, or cute selfies with her girlfriend, I love following her. She is incredibly smart, funny, insightful and politically aware. Hear how brilliant she is in this 4 Mile Circus Podcast, in which she discusses her adolescent obsession with t.A.T.u’s “All The Things She Said” video (same) and how she reframed the video in her own project, excluding the gaze of others. She is one talented babe. We proudly present to you “Seven Minutes in Heaven” with Annie Rose Malamet.

GO Magazine: Who are you and what do you do?

Annie Rose Malamet: I am a fat lesbian, an artist, DIY curator, and educator. For the past year, I’ve been curating a series of shows featuring all fat identified artists called “Fatter IRL.” The show was conceived as a way to highlight the talent of fat people, and fat queer people in particular, in an art world that is governed by rigid beauty politics. The name is a nod to how much of fat activism occurs online; the show itself is an attempt to bring the way fat internet communities reclaim taking up space into the physical realm. So far, we’ve had exhibits in Brooklyn (as part of the “Re:” series) and LA (at Welcome to Junior High, an amazing DIY space). I’m currently (tentatively) planning one in London.

As an artist, I am most interested in the intersection between text and visual imagery. My solo show at Disclaimer Gallery in Brooklyn, “w4w”, investigated the women for women “missed connections” section of Craigslist.com. The work in this show explored personal ads as a site of isolation and hyper visibility. A womancentric queer existence is by nature an isolating and dissociative experience. Queer women live on the intersection of misogyny and homophobia, creating an existence that is both invisible and hyper visible. These are the themes I’m currently discussing in my work.

Additionally, I teach photography/video equipment and software at BRIC Arts Media in Brooklyn, an amazing art non-profit organization.

GO Mag: What is the driving force behind your activism/career/art?

ARM: I think the driving force behind everything I do is at a base level, making things accessible. I love that my job allows me to teach people how to make high quality media with the skills and equipment they already have at their finger tips (like smart phones, for example). Being able to create your own media and tell your story is like learning how to drive a car: it’s life changing and extremely empowering. When making my own work, I pretty much only use materials that are readily available to me and don’t cost much money. Which is pretty difficult sometimes, considering I mostly work with media/lens based mediums. I bring this ethos to my curatorial work as well, working with DIY, anti-elitist spaces that are committed to showcasing the work of marginalized people.

Photo by Sophia Sabala

GO Mag: Who are your biggest queer lady role models?

ARM: Laura Aguilar, Sadie Benning, Romaine Brooks, Jewelle Gomez, all the women running the Lesbian Herstory Archives in Brooklyn, Edmonia Lewis, my seventh grade gym teacher, Beth Ditto (duh), Greer Lankton

GO: Where do you go for inspiration when you’re feeling discouraged or depleted?

ARM: I revisit some of my favorite works or art or literature and remember how much the women who made them had to struggle to get their work out there. Romaine Brooks was living life as an out lesbian and painting self-portraits where she was wearing men’s clothing in the early 1900s. Edmonia Lewis was a successful African American/Indigenous American sculptor making work in the 1860s. Laura Aguilar has been documenting her experiences as a fat, Mexican, gay woman since the 80s when fat activism was barely being discussed at all. Jewelle Gomez wrote “The Gilda Stories,” an unabashedly lesbian novel about a black woman who escapes slavery and becomes a vampire. It’s a groundbreaking book that is extremely underrated and not often discussed. Connecting with these women through their work rejuvenates me spiritually.

GO: Describe your style in three words.

ARM: minimal femme vampire.

Photo by Annie Rose Malamet

GO: What music are you listening to right now?

ARM: Lately revisiting Barbara Streisand, Ministry, ‘Til Tuesday, Shonen Knife, and PJ Harvey

GO: How can people find you?

ARM: You can find me on my website www.annierosemalamet.com and on Instagram as @fatgawth


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