Dress and belt
(c. 1985)
Medium
screenprinted linen, cotton
Measurements
(a) 94.0 cm (centre back) 60.0 cm (waist, flat) (dress)
(b) 4.0 × 180.0 cm (belt)
Credit Line
Gift of Helen Fennessy in memory of Mary Gayton, 2026
Gallery location
Gallery 10
Level 2, NGV Australia
About this work
Australian artist and activist David McDiarmid worked across many media to record his experiences as a queer man in the late twentieth century. From his early involvement in the Gay Liberation Movement to his groundbreaking artistic response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, McDiarmid’s work from the 1970s to the 1990s charts key moments that shaped his community. Popular culture, the glamour of advertising and countercultural politics are recurring themes throughout his practice. This work employs the delicate calligraphic approach to design that is emblematic of his distinctive stylised linework.