The NGV and the Australian Queer Archives (AQuA) have collaboratively developed a series of short films to coincide with the NGV’S QUEER: Stories from the NGV Collection exhibition. These films draw out themes ranging from activism and community building to loss and resistance, with reference to artworks in QUEER and objects in AQuA’s rich collections. NGV curators Meg Slater and Ted Gott, and Angela Bailey and Nick Henderson from AQuA, are joined by queer leaders and community members William Yang, Madé Spencer-Castle, Joan Nestle and Peter Waples Crowe, to discuss queer ideas, experiences and histories in and beyond QUEER and AQuA.
This program is Auslan interpreted.
Session one: The Legacy of David McDiarmid
Session two: Queer People Archiving Their Histories
Session three: HIV/AIDS Activism, Then and Now
Session four: Landmark LGBTQ+ Exhibitions in Australia
We are delighted to partner with the Victorian Pride Centre and the Australian Queer Archives to launch AQuA x QUEER: Mining Queer Histories, and invite you to join us in celebrating the launch of this resource. This event will include an introduction to the series of short films, by Angela Bailey (President, Australian Queer Archives), Nick Henderson (Committee Member, Australian Queer Archives), Ted Gott (Senior Curator, International Art, National Gallery of Victoria) and Meg Slater (Assistant Curator, International Exhibitions, National Gallery of Victoria), and repeat screenings of two of the films, as well as after-hours access to the Australian Queer Archives and their current exhibition Printed Protest: Graphic Activism from the Australian Queer Archives.
Speakers
Angela Bailey Angela Bailey, President, Australian Queer Archives, is a curator and photographer. As a young activist participating in the fight for gay law reform in Queensland in the late 1980s to her work as Director of the Visual Arts for Midsumma Festival in the late 1990s – all have contributed to her ongoing participation in promoting and interpreting our rich and diverse histories by creating exhibitions and public engagement programs. Angela has lectured and tutored in photography and has worked in numerous public collections. She has curated exhibitions in cultural institutions across Melbourne, including exhibitions as part of the International AIDS 2014 Cultural Program in Melbourne and WE ARE HERE at the State Library of Victoria.
Nick Henderson Nick Henderson has been a volunteer Committee Member at the Australian Queer Archives for 13 years, where he manages the collection, looks after researchers, volunteers and the AQuA Facebook, and when he has time, curates exhibitions. During the day, he’s also a Curator at the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, having previously worked in curatorial and archivist roles across national and state institutions for over 20 years.
Joan Nestle Joan Nestle is an activist, teacher and Lambda award-winning writer, born in the Bronx and now living in Australia with her partner. In 1972 she helped launch the Gay Academic Union and in 1973, she co-founded the Lesbian Herstory Archives, a rich collection of documents and memorabilia of lesbian history and culture, which holds everything she has written.
Madé Spencer-Castle Madé Spencer-Castle is an independent curator based in Naarm/Melbourne, and Associate Director at Neon Parc. He has held positions including Curator of Exhibitions at the Centre for Contemporary Photography (2018–2020); Gallery Curator at Bus Projects (2015–2018); Associate Curator at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery (2014–2018); the founder and co-Director of DUDSPACE (2012–2015); and served as a Committee Member at KINGS Artist-Run (2012–15). Recent curatorial projects include 'Tender gestures, loud voices', Footscray Community Arts Centre, Melbourne (2021); ‘Stimulus Package’, City of Darebin Public Art Project, Melbourne (2021); ‘Sam Petersen: My Pee is Political’, Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney (2020); ‘Why Take Pictures?’ and ‘Image Reader’, CCP, Melbourne (2019); and 'Queer Economies' co-curated with Abbra Kotlarczyck and presented with Midsumma Festival in association with Abbotsford Convent, Bus Projects and CCP, Melbourne (2019)
Peter Waples-Crowe Peter Waples-Crowe is a queer Ngarigo person living in Naarm. Peter is a contemporary artist and community health worker. His art practice explores the intersection of being queer and Ngarigu. He currently works part- time for Thorne Harbour Health as a health educator in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island project.
William Yang William Yang moved from Brisbane to Sydney in 1969 and worked as a freelance photographer documenting Sydney’s social life which included the glamorous, celebrity set and the hedonistic, sub-cultural, gay community. In 1989 he integrated his skills as a writer and a visual artist, he began to perform monologues with slide projection in the theatre. They tell personal stories and explore issues of identity. He has done twelve full length performances, many of which toured the world. William’s current work is photo based, he has gallery exhibitions, which embrace both documentary photography to works of photo media. Text written on the prints is often a feature of his work. He has converted three of his theatre performances into film at the University of NSW. These have been broadcast on ABC1. In 2021 William had a major retrospective of his work, Seeing and Being Seen, at QAGOMA in Brisbane. It comprised 250 printed works, videos, and four of his films were shown in a cinema. A commissioned piece, In Search of Home, was performed during the season
Meg Slater Assistant Curator, International Exhibition Projects, NGV.