A review of the exhibition "The Inoperative Community" at the gallery Raven Row in London, UK, Curated by Dan Kidner, the exhibition draws 25 artists' works from racial equality, the diasporic experience of migrants, gay pride, and female emancipation. In the introduction to the article, the author briefly discusses the works that were shown in Raven Row from the 60s to the 80s, which were closely driven by political agendas. The remainder of the essay discusses mainly Stuart Marshall's A Journal of the Plague Year (1984) and Ann Charlotte Robertson's Five Year Diary (1981-1997), both works that moved the author for different reasons. A Journal of the Plague Year is an installation work that examines Stuart's response to the homophobic media reporting of HIV/AIDS. Five Year Diary is a much more intimate work, which was made on super 8 film, and reveals Robertson's attempts to negotiate and analyze the confusion of her emotional life.