Artist: Neville Williams©️Arts Law Australia
Media: Fired Clay, oil, resin on wooden plinth
Size: 30cm x 30cm (base) x 60cm (H)
PRIVATE COLLECTION
It was the early second half of the 1970’s and this boy from Bankstown had just come out as Gay at *CampNSW - 33A Glebe Point Road, Glebe. I found myself being tagged along up the road to the old New Art Cinema to experience live Lindsay Kemp in “Flowers”.
This was something of an education.
Watching as he slowly, and I do mean slowly, mimed his way across stage his bare chest and his body all white with flowing white robes and dark fluid dripping from his mouth was quite avant-garde and a decadent revelation. This for me is one of those stark reminisces of a time past into history and I now realise his performance was a welcoming embrace towards a better self.
My art piece/sculpture here (I always envisaged this as some sort of award to be presented annually to someone worthy!!!) symbolises those pioneering individuals of the “gay scene” then who had the courage to be themselves with panache and creativity. It was a time when a hunger for change and self-recognition was fomenting in multiple closets.
I came out to my parents only the night before Lindsay Kemp’s performance and I do remember feeling very very alone.
My revelation did not go down well in the 'burbs. But courage emerged like butterflies from a dark chrysalis and many a flutter, flight and rabble of poofs, dykes and an assortment of colourful queens “flowered” during this period.
Lindsay Kemp and many of his contemporaries led the way for a generation. The evening of his performance I felt that I had taken a step and his overt presence was a warm embrace into a world of adventure, mystery and new opportunity.
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*CampNSW recently showcased in the Australian film “RIOT” was based in Glebe and was a node point for political expression at that time. Every Friday night I would drive my glam electric blue Torana from Padstow to the edge of the City.
From the launchpad of CampNSW it would be a quick dive into surprise, wonder and the wild. New friends, Flo’s Palace, Albury, Capriccio’s, Ken’s, Patches, the Cricketers Arms, the big dance parties, the saunas, the restaurants, the galleries, the beaches,
Mardi Gras - Oxford Street.
A whole new world… and then came AIDS.
We’ve earned our place and deserve to carry ourselves not only with pride but dignity on the world stage. NW☺︎
