‘Friendship as a Way of Life’ brings together more than 20 artists and collaborative groups to explore queer kinship and forms of being together. The exhibition centres around three ideas that offer perspectives on LGBTQI+ partnerships, collaboration, visibility, sex, intimacy and knowledge: ‘Public Relations’ (the public expression of private lives and forms of communicating identities); ‘Living Arrangements’ (spaces and approaches to living/being with ‘chosen families’); and ‘Intergenerational Kinship’ (learning, sharing and support across generations). Presented across the entire gallery and online, this major project seeks to foreground the way LGBTQI+ communities create alternative networks of support through various creative and resourceful means.
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Curated by José Da Silva and Kelly Doley
Macon Reed: Eulogy for the Dyke Bar
Introducing the exhibition is Macon Reed’s immersive installation Eulogy for the Dyke Bar 2016. Reed’s work revisits the legacy of lesbian and dyke bars and functions as both an environment mimicking the interior of a bar and a community space for performances, conversations and socialising. It 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 an experience of feminine-spectrum queerness in the past or present (or perhaps future), and/or feels an affiliation or ally-ship with dyke culture.
Film | Macon Reed: Eulogy for the Dyke Bar (2017)
Watch Isabel Farrington's short documentary portrait of the installation during its closing night in New York City.
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 Tay Haggarty)
Nikos Pantazopoulos
Macon Reed
A.L. Steiner & A.K. Burns
Ella Sutherland
and material from the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives
Macon Reed, Eulogy for the Dyke Bar 2016.
Installation view, 'Friendship as a Way of Life', UNSW Galleries, 2020.
Photograph: Zan Wimberley
A.K. Burns and A.L. Steiner, Community Action Centre 2010 and Dani Marti, The Pleasure Chest (Composition in Black and White) 2016.
Installation view, ‘Friendship as a Way of Life’, UNSW Galleries, 2020. Photo: Zan Wimberley.
Elmgreen & Dragset, The Incidental Self, Fig. 3 2007.
Installation view, ‘Friendship as a Way of Life’, UNSW Galleries, 2020. Photo: Zan Wimberley.
Gavin Kirkness, Leather Pride, Australian AIDS Memorial Quilt in memory of the leather community 1992.
Installation view, ‘Friendship as a Way of Life’, UNSW Galleries, 2020. Photo: Zan Wimberley.
Forms of Being Together
This companion program expands the exhibition and considers trajectories of queer kinship — platonic, romantic, sexual and otherwise — from different social and historical perspectives.
Ella Sutherland
SALT
1988 - 2020
From Wicked Women to Club Kooky
Heart on My Sleeve
A series of online graphic design and printing workshops are designed for LGBTQIA+ and allies aged 12–25 years. Developed in partnership with Twenty10, the workshops are facilitated by Sydney-based artist Kieran Butler. Supported by Museums & Galleries NSW.
Image
Parallel Park (Holly Bates and Tay Haggarty) Tandem 2016. Digital photograph. Image courtesy of the artists