Engages,

Archie Barry: I found this hat on a footpath three years ago

Archie Barry, ‘I found this hat on a footpath three years ago’ (2019), interactive performance series, duration approx. 20 minutes. Found hat and custom made satin curtain.

Performance schedule:
Saturday 19, 6pm (opening event)
Tuesday 29, 5.30pm
Wednesday 30, 2pm
Thursday 31, 2pm

As part of ‘Queer Economies’, Please join us for Archie Barry’s performance ‘I found this hat on a footpath three years ago’.

Providing confidentiality is a labour made invisible because it doesn’t look like anything much. Listening doesn’t have much of an appearance, absorption of the unrepeatable doesn’t look like some thing or some movement: it’s an act of non-action. Making safe harbours for other’s secrets is an undervalued skill. Confidentiality is the currency of exchanging confidence, withholding is holding with. To be boldly private for each other.

‘I found this hat on a footpath three years ago’ is an interactive performance work by Archie Barry that invites both discretion and exposure.

‘Queer Economies’ at Bus Projects 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 Bus Projects presents newly commissioned artworks by Australian LGBTQIA+ artists across all five gallery spaces, alongside a series of associated public programs and performances. Seeking to explore the potentials and possibilities of a ‘queer economy’, this exhibition engages with contemporary artists to critically and subjectively consider: What does a ‘queer economy’ look like, and how might its values of exchange be circulated, commoned or coacted?

In addition to the Bus Projects exhibition, ‘Queer Economies’ encompasses 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; a series of contemporary video works to be screened after dark as part of the Centre for Contemporary Photography’s Night Projection Window; and a multi-site series of coactive public programs and events taking place during the Midsumma festival period. A publication of commissioned essays and creative contributions will be developed in partnership with Perimeter Editions, to be launched in mid-2019.

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’ is supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria and has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, 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 xx