Wearing

BACKGROUND The broad field of research is an expanded understanding of Photography in the Visual Arts the narrow field of research is the personal as political through homosexual theory and practice. The work is a critical reflection on the significance of queer representation in contemporary art and how that voice can be authored. CONTRIBUTION This project 'Wearing' explores the body gender and dressing as a form of sculpting identities. In 'Wearing' I am investigating the materials of a photographic studio using the personal as political and ask how can the performing body and photographic materials expand the frame? This work is a response to an articulation of thinking through the homosexual body navigating institutions in the patriarchal city. The work is a series of 11 photographic works presented as sculptural assemblages to be experienced both in the round and as wall works that mediate the gallery. I am the photographer, the sculptor the performer and the producer of the work. 'Wearing' has allowed me to consider photographic material as a spatial practice that questions bodily presence and personal politics from within the institution. SIGNIFICANCE This conversation is currently explored by international artists Carlos Motta 'We who Fell differently' for his Guggenheim Fellowship, James Richard's a the Venice Biennale 'Rosebud' , Prem Sahib at the London ICA 'Side On' and Turner Prize artist Wolfgang Tillman's. These international artists explore homosexual narratives in the visual arts to inform and expand on the research I am developing in a national and international context. The homosexual antipodean experience has been explored most vigorously internationally in Australian literature by Christos Tsolkas however a gap remains in the visual arts for a sustained national and international conversation about imaging and forming homosexual narratives in the present tense.