UNSW Galleries presents ‘Friendship as a Way of Life’ from 8 May to 1 August 2020: an exhibition exploring queer kinship and forms of being together through art, cinema and archival material.

‘Friendship as a Way of Life’ considers how LGBTQI+ people form communities and create alternative networks of support through various creative and resourceful means. It features the work of artists, writers and creatives who revisit and rethink LGBTQI+ experiences, social history and subcultural traditions. The exhibition and public programs pivot around three ideas that offer perspectives on partnerships, collaboration, visibility, sex, intimacy and knowledge. Key themes
include: ‘Public Relations’ (the public expression of private lives and forms of communicating
identities and desires); ‘Living Arrangements’ (spaces and approaches to living/being with ‘chosen families’); and ‘Intergenerational Kinship’ (learning, sharing and support across generations).

The exhibition includes ALOK, Mark Aguhar, Frances Barrett, Shannon Michael Cane, Elmgreen & Dragset, DJ Gemma, Camilo Godoy, Helen Grace, Gavin Kirkness and the Australian AIDS Memorial Quilt project, Dani Marti, Parallel Park (Holly Bates and Tayla Jay Haggarty), Nikos Pantazopoulos, Macon Reed, A.L. Steiner & A.K. Burns, Ella Sutherland and material from the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives. The exhibition is curated by UNSW Galleries Director José Da Silva and Deputy Director Kelly Doley.

At the heart of the exhibition is the ambitious project Eulogy for the Dyke Bar 2016 by American artist Macon Reed. This immersive installation revisits the legacy of lesbian and dyke bars that are increasingly rare. The work functions as a sculptural environment mimicking the interior of a bar and a community space activated through its use as a place for performances, conversations and socialising. Throughout the exhibition, Eulogy for the Dyke Bar will open late each Thursday in June to host a program of talks and events celebrating LGBTQI+ communities of the past, present and future.

As UNSW Galleries Director José Da Silva explains: “This exhibition reaffirms the value of relations and forms of togetherness that exist outside marriage and biological families.”

UNSW Galleries Deputy Director Kelly Doley continues: “With this project, we are creating a space to remember and celebrate the intense creativity and resilience of artists and communities in making space to meet, celebrate, organise and just be.”

Scandinavian duo Elmgreen & Dragset present the installation The Incidental Self, Fig. 3 2007 featuring hundreds of photographs of everyday situations that redefine ideas of family, community and biography. A new commission by Helen Grace revisits the artist’s rarely seen archive of photographs documenting life at Amazon Acres, a female-only community set up in northern New South Wales in the mid-1970s.

Also featured is a text work by New York writer, performance artist and activist ALOK challenging the dominance of romantic love and celebrating other forms of connection; as well as a new work by Australian duo Parallel Park (Holly Bates and Tayla Jay Haggarty) that explores the intricacies of romantic and artistic collaboration.

Alongside contemporary works is material from the community-run Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives. These items draw parallels between creative and collective activity in Australia and feature material from Sydney’s chapter of the Order of Perpetual Indulgence. Contemporary artist and designer Ella Sutherland presents a new commission responding to the typography found in the important erotic dyke magazine Wicked Women (1988-1996) alongside a complete collection of the publication on loan from the Archives.

A highlight of the exhibition is the inclusion of a large-scale panel from the Australian AIDS Memorial Quilt that provides a record of community resourcefulness, activism and grief in response to
HIV/AIDS in Australia. The ‘Quilt’ itself is made from over 100 panels remembering individuals who have died since 1982. At UNSW Galleries a panel first initiated by Gavin Kirkness and completed in 1992 by the Leather Pride groups throughout Australia acknowledges the many underrepresented members of the leather community affected.

EXHIBITION DETAILS

Artists: ALOK, Mark Aguhar, Frances Barrett, Shannon Michael Cane, Elmgreen & Dragset, DJ Gemma, Camilo Godoy, Helen Grace, Gavin Kirkness and the Australian AIDS Memorial Quilt project, Dani Marti, Parallel Park (Holly Bates and Tayla Jay Haggarty), Nikos Pantazopoulos, Macon Reed, A.L. Steiner & A.K. Burns, Ella Sutherland and material from the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives.

Curators: José Da Silva and Kelly Doley

Where: UNSW Galleries

Address: Cnr of Oxford Street and Greens Road, Paddington, Sydney. Tel: 02 8936 0888 When: 8 May – 1 August 2020, Tuesday – Saturday, 10am – 5pm (closed public holidays) Late opening each Thursday throughout June

Tickets: Free. Opening Party: 6–9 pm, Friday 8 May 2020.

Website: https://artdesign.unsw.edu.au/unsw-galleries/exhibitions

LATE NIGHTS: EULOGY FOR THE DYKE BAR

From 6 pm each Thursday throughout, June Eulogy for the Dyke Bar opens for business, to celebrate LGBTQI+ communities of the past, present and future. The installation reclaims the term “dyke” in its most expansive sense and recognises that gender and identities are complex and fluid. The ‘bar’ is open to anyone who has identified with the term or experience of feminine-spectrum queerness in the past or present (or perhaps future), and/or feels an affiliation or ally-ship with dyke culture.

Where: UNSW Galleries

When: 6-9 pm Thursdays 4, 11, 18 and 25 June 2020

Tickets: Free. The program announced in March.

Website: https://artdesign.unsw.edu.au/unsw-galleries/friendship-way-life

TALK SERIES: FORMS OF BEING TOGETHER

This series of illustrated talks and in-conversations explore topics such as alternative club culture in Australia, HIV/AIDS community initiatives, online culture and communication practices, and the trajectories of various friendships — platonic, romantic, sexual and otherwise—in popular culture. Where: UNSW Galleries

When: 2 pm, Saturday 9 May, Saturday 4 July and Saturday 1 August

Tickets: Free. Register on Eventbrite

Website: https://artdesign.unsw.edu.au/unsw-galleries/friendship-way-life