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- Wednesday, 3 February 2010
By Keith Lawrence
Vivien St James 1964-2009, a tribute to the iconic performer who died last year, was the centrepiece of Midsumma’s Queer City program, curated by Isaac Lummis and T J Bateson.
The exhibition featured her favourite costumes and jewellery alongside glamour photographs commissioned by Vivien from Bateson and Mark Djilas. Friends, drag queens, dignitaries and artists packed the gallery at the opening in her memory.
The exhibition was opened by Roger Leong, curator of international fashion and textiles at the National Gallery of Victoria.
Juxtaposed were two other exhibitions exploring personal perspectives of glamour — Anthony L’Huillier’s Photo Prodigious and his fleshy, evocative photographs celebrating Bear sexuality, and Adelina Emmi’s large-scale canvases of female Hollywood stars of yesteryear including Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Louise Brooks and Tallulah Bankhead.
Under the curatorial directorship of artist Bateson for the past three years and with the support of a small, ever-changing voluntary working group, the Midsumma visual arts program has developed in impact, diversity and maturity.
The commissioning of young curators such as Jesslyn Moss (the challenging Transmasculinities at Red Gallery) and Jason Lingaard (the Y-Gen Finding Space at The Carlton Hotel), and partnerships with established galleries such as the Counihan Gallery in Brunswick (the compelling Gayme, celebrating the creative practice of leading queer-identifying Indigenous Australian artists such as Clinton Nain, r e a and Troy-Antony Baylis and running until February 21) and the group shows Gay Pop Culture (69 Smith St) and Queer City Lane Dwellers (Guildford Lane Gallery) highlight the progress made in recent years in the queer art movement.
Fluidity of gender, sexuality and identity was the overriding theme of this year’s program.
The singularly most impressive work came from Janice Appleton and There Is Something I Need To Tell You, about a wife’s response to a husband of 26 years who undergoes gender re-assignment surgery, at Guildford Lane Gallery. Art reflects life in this extraordinarily moving installation which charts the journey from a heterosexual married couple to one of the few legally married same-sex couples in Australia.
Combining text and traditional textile skills, a large double bed dominates, surrounded by the everyday paraphernalia of living. But closer observation reveals something more deeply personal, referencing throughout the physical and emotional changes: an embroidered ‘Sorry’ tapestry, hair-sprouting hormone-pill containers, male and female clothing umbilically connected.
Through such programming, Bateson, whose own powerful exhibition Veiled In Plain Sight runs at tacit contemporary art until February 20, ensured the Midsumma 2010 visual arts, featuring more than 100 artists, is and was a true celebration of the sheer diversity and quality of queer art.
And those who shed tears in memory of an icon will be overjoyed with the news that plans are underway to tour Vivien St James 1964-2009 both regionally and interstate. A fitting tribute to her and the strongest Midsumma visual arts program yet.
Tags: midsumma, Midsumma’s Queer City program, Vivien St James
