Sorry Nana I Can’t Get Married

An appropriation of Australian artist Anastasia Klose’s iconic “Sorry Nan I’m still Not Married” video artwork, “Sorry Nana I Still Can’t Get Married” re-contextualizes Klose’s message of feminist independence in the face of ethnic and family structure of marriage and tradition for our current political climate regarding marriage equality for the LGBTQI2+ community. Donning a “cheap” wedding dress and with a similar cardboard sign around neck, walking the streets of Footscray at night, utilising the tropes and connotations of drag performance, the power of the symbol of the wedding dress on a bearded, stocky man becomes ‘shocking’ or visible of the ‘other’ in our culture. Ultimately a critique on current policies and politics in power, “Sorry Nana I Still Can’t Get Married” is also one of inclusion, homo-core visibility, drag jestering, political protest and contemporary Australian art history. Listen to a discussion with Matto Lucas on queer art as activism in relation to the Australian marriage equality fight on JOY.FM here. 

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