Kiss & Tell Collective

Kiss & Tell is an artistic collective based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Members include Persimmon Blackbridge, Lizard Jones and Susan Stewart. The group formed out of a larger meeting of feminists in 1984 who had gathered to discuss pornography, erotica, and sexual representation in art. The collective's work frequently addresses issues of censorship and lesbian sexual politics.

The group's major production was the interactive photographic exhibition "Drawing the Line," which launched in 1989 and toured for several years afterwards. The exhibition consisted of a series of 98 photographs taken by Susan Stewart with Lizard Jones and Persimmon Blackbridge as models, depicting a range of lesbian sexual practices. A postcard book "Drawing the Line: Lesbian Sexual Politics on the Wall," featuring 40 images and comments from the exhibition, was published by Press Gang Publishers in 1991. The group's second book, "Her Tongue on my Theory: Images, Essays and Fantasies" (1994) was the recipient of a Lambda Literary Award in 1995. The group has also produced performance pieces, including "True Inversions" (1992), images from which are contained in the book "Her Tongue on my Theory," and "That Long Distance Feeling: Perverts, Politics & Prozac" (1997).

Lorna Boschman has made three short films about Kiss and Tell: "Drawing the Line" (1992), "True Inversions" (1992), and "Before the New Millennium" (2007). In the summer of 2015, the Vancouver Queer Arts Festival featured the exhibition "Drawing the Line in 2015," celebrating the 25th anniversary of the show.

Revised by Nailisa Tanner (January 2016): added administrative history and dates of existence.

Blackbridge, Persimmon, Lizard Jones, and Susan Stewart. Her Tongue on My Theory: Images, Essays and Fantasies. Vancouver: Press Gang Publishers, 1994.