REVIEW: Queer Art After Hours x Mardi Gras 2017

Queer Art After Hours x Mardi Gras is the joyous safe space that the LGBTQI+ community deserves.

 As the sweltering dawn of February descended, Sydney-siders were feeling the heat in ways that had nothing to do with the weather. It seems only fitting that the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras season coincides with that of Valentine’s; after all, what’s a 21st century celebration of love without some politicisation?

 Prejudice. Discrimination. Inequality. It’s real. Mardi Gras may be close to its fortieth year, but don’t let the dazzling drag queens joyfully traipsing across your television screen fool you. This year’s parade saw an unprecedented increase in security, prompted by the hauntingly tragic Orlando nightclub massacre that occurred only nine months prior.

 We have been blessed with a city that is accepting — at least on a surface level — of diversity and multiplicity of identity. Every year, the City of Sydney dedicates two weeks to being a hub of all things fabulously gay. A multitude of rainbow-related events occur with the backdrop of the shining Town Hall, an oasis surrounded by rainbow flags flying at full-mast. These two weeks have one goal: acceptance.

 The events and their heavy media coverage give the illusion that Sydney — that we — has attained equality. Yet as I sat around a polished dinner table on the eve of the parade, watching the news coverage and listening to conservative discussion, I realised ‘equality’ was still far from being a reality. For some, Mardi Gras is seen as a flamboyantly flimsy excuse for a party. For others, it’s the only time and place they can celebrate themselves and their community safely.

A party Mardi Gras might be, but it’s a party with a purpose.

 Walking into the Art Gallery of New South Wales, it’s hard to believe it’s only a Wednesday afternoon. The classical façade of Sydney’s traditional art house completely transforms as you stroll through the 19th centuryarchway. Inside, the rooms are full of a liberated vibrancy; a black, oblong stage stretches along the floor of the lobby, elevating captivating performances of curated queer talent so all can be absorbed into the exhibition of sheer joy and freedom.

 Queer Art After Hours is a Friday-night-dance-club-esque celebration of queer culture. Scantily-clad men, women and those who are neither have gathered for a joyous Mardi Gras makeover of Art After Hours; the seductive brain-child of the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras.

 Everyone has a right to equality, to life, liberty, personal security, freedom from discrimination. These are universal human rights. As I wandered through the romantically-lit displays of the Adman: Warhol Before Pop exhibition with my pink glossed and ‘glitta-fied’ pout, I found myself feeling grateful for safe spaces. Gazing at the intimate visualisations of Warhol’s thoughts and feelings — ones he couldn’t openly vocalise in 1950s America— rendered me uncomfortably aware of the hardship and discrimination that the majority of those around me have suffered as a result of their identity.

 Prejudice and intolerance still plagues the consciences of many. For LGBTQI+ folk, the presence of safe spaces is life changing. It’s a marvellous experience that is one step toward equality, yes; but the fact that the divide between ‘safe’ and ‘unsafe’ spaces still exists highlights the continued presence of prejudice, no matter how implicit and unstated.