Queer. Here.

Satellite Gallery is a little art space above the first floor of The Old Bar on Johnston Street. “QUEER. HERE”. is a celebration of LGBTQ+ artists of all sorts, running as part of the Leaps And Bounds Music Festival. The exhibition itself is a small reflection of a diversity of expressions of queerness experienced by different local artists, through a similarly diverse range of media. Different possibilities of being is a common theme within the exhibition. Brooke Van Der Linden’s collages are an example of such, in creating new ways of being through the transformative outcomes of collage. Pairing a juvenile approach of sticking sequins on coloured paper, with an acute sensitivity to composition heightens the fantastical possibilities of expressing oneself. Although their processes and expression through collage differs in individual approach, Rachel Morley’s hand stitched collages lend themselves to a similar effect, in exploring a more abstract path of self-determination, most evident in her collage “Self construction”. Vulnerability is also conveyed through the variety of ways that artists’ artforms have allowed. Ashley McNeil’s “Smash the CIS-TEM” is a sweet close up portrait painting of a non-binary, femme couple. Soft brush strokes and blending that oil paint allows brings a glow in the subjects’ complexions and radiating matching peach background, producing a calm image of love. Amber Dance is an artist whose practice reveals in raw drawings life with mental illness as a LGBTQ+ person. Their comic style drawings in this show reveal regular occurrences that magnify the pain of alcoholism and copping slurs. Each brush stroke feels cutting and heavy. Pain is a clear theme also evident also in Anna Dunnill’s video work “to pierce, to puncture”, as we witness a person tattooing a nebula of colour onto the palm of their own hand, in reference to the complicated relationship between sexuality and Western religion, and its battle leaving marks on the body. For a show demonstrating so many threads of remarkable individuals and artistic styles, one may like to have seen a path leading back to the centre of these works, which in their curation does not necessarily lie completely in the artists’ gender and sexual identities. This community is a vast and diverse one, with artistic expression being influenced further by race and class. In some cases there is a tendency to inadvertently lump this community together as one, despite its kaleidoscopic reality, especially in regards to art. It is important to celebrate LGBTQ+ artists. While the need for representation is crucial in artistic spaces, it should always be curated. Each artwork provides an entry point into another LGBTQ+ person’s world, however, for a show demonstrating so many threads of remarkable individuals and artistic styles, one may like to see a path leading back to the centre of these works other than in the artists’ gender and sexual identities, which in their curation does not. To do justice to LGBTQ+ art in an exhibition is made complex by the wide variety of experiences multiplied by practice, and to be able to explore so much in a small space is a success. Overall, the opening night of QUEER. HERE. made for an intimate and entertaining evening, complete with live music acts He Cries Diamonds, Electric Toothbrush and InfraGhosts, drag performance by Tanzer and drinks downstairs, supporting the community feeling of the bar. Words by Danielle Divola