December 24 – 30 January, 2019

Queer Economies

Tony Albert,
Frances Barrett,
Archie Barry,
Nathan Beard,
Debris Facility Pty Ltd,
Briony Galligan,
Rafaella McDonald,
Callum McGrath,
Spiros Panigirakis,
Nikos Pantazopoulos,
Parallel Park (Holly Bates and Tayla Jay Haggarty),
Francis E Parker,
Charlie Sofo,
Amy Spiers,
Athena Thebus,
Peter Waples-Crowe,
and Behn Woods

Madé Spencer-Castle and Abbra Kotlarczyk

Callum McGrath, River Torrens, 2017. Single channel digital video, 6:00min looped. Installation view, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane. Courtesy of the artist.

Presented by Midsumma Festival in association with Bus Projects, Abbotsford Convent and the Centre for Contemporary Photography, with support from Perimeter Editions and the David McDiarmid Estate.

Queer Economies at the Centre for Contemporary Photography forms part of a multi-site exhibition and public program series, which takes its cue from the handmade artworks and objects that queer artist and activist David McDiarmid gifted to friends and loved ones during his lifetime. Following in McDiarmid’s generous logic, Queer Economies explores the non-monetary, in-kind economies that emerge within LGBTQIA+ communities, in order to foster resilience, love and connection.

Queer Economies at CCP presents a series of contemporary video works by Australian LGBTQIA+ artists, visible on the Night Projection Window seven nights a week after dark. Engaging with artists working across digital media and the moving image, Queer Economies at CCP activates the public sphere to explore the social and political potentialities of a ‘queer economy’. Following from the highly divisive public discussions around LGBTQIA+ lives in Australia in 2017, these video works gather around enunciations of queer subjectivity to infiltrate and co-opt the public commons.

In addition to the works presented on the CCP Night Projection Window, Queer Economies encompasses a curated exhibition of newly commissioned artworks by Australian LGBTQIA+ artists to be presented at Bus Projects; a community-led open call exhibition at St Heliers Street Gallery, Abbotsford Convent inviting the LGBTQIA+ community to contribute an artwork ‘gift’ to someone to whom they are grateful; and a multi-site series of coactive public programs and events taking place during the Midsumma festival period.

queereconomies.org

Queer Economies is supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria and has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body.

Queer Economies takes inspiration from Gifts from David McDiarmid, a Perimeter Editions publication conceived and developed by Dr Sally Gray, executor of the David McDiarmid Estate.

The curators would like to gratefully acknowledge the immense generosity of the individuals, communities and organisations that have converged to produce Queer Economies. Without their care, conversations and fabulous creativity, this project would not have been possible.