Friendship as a Way of Life’ brings together more than 20 artists and collaborative groups to explore queer kinship and forms of being together. The exhibition centres around three ideas that offer perspectives on LGBTQI+ partnerships, collaboration, visibility, sex, intimacy and knowledge: ‘Public Relations’ (the public expression of private lives and forms of communicating identities); ‘Living Arrangements’ (spaces and approaches to living/being with ‘chosen families’); and ‘Intergenerational Kinship’ (learning, sharing and support across generations). Presented across the entire gallery and online, this major project seeks to foreground the way LGBTQI+ communities create alternative networks of support through various creative and resourceful means.

Artists
ALOK
Mark Aguhar
Frances Barrett
Shannon Michael Cane
Elmgreen & Dragset
DJ Gemma
Camilo Godoy
Helen Grace
Gavin Kirkness and the Australian AIDS Memorial Quilt project
Dani Marti
Parallel Park (Holly Bates and Tay Haggarty)
Nikos Pantazopoulos
Macon Reed
A.L. Steiner & A.K. Burns
Ella Sutherland
and material from the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives

UNSW Galleries link and virtual tour

Works exhibited:
Courtesy of the artist; GAGPROJECTS | Greenaway Art Gallery, Adelaide; ARC ONE GALLERY, Melbourne; and Dominik Mersch Gallery, Sydney
Notes for Bob, 2012-2016
Dani Marti’s videos are intense and uncompromising in their examination of power, vulnerability, care and pleasure. They ask difficult questions about sexuality and the efficacy of relationships, as well as our desire to witness the experiences of others. Notes for Bob depicts an intimate exchange between Marti and Bob, a gay blind man from New York City. Stripped of vision, Bob finds sexual gratification and intimacy in touch and voice. He explains that “people are their voices” and his attractions to men centres on the individual pitch and tone of their voice. Bob guides Marti through the process of singing specific notes for him while he masturbates. In exchange for documenting their experience, Marti gifts Bob an archive of audio recordings. Twenty-one gay male volunteers perform notes that have a specific sexual charge for Bob and offered sexual favours in exchange. They appear in Notes for Bob as silent studies standing in Marti’s studio and as close-up performances recorded for Bob.  Video link 

The Pleasure Chest (Composition in Black and White) 2016
Second-hand necklaces and beads on powder coated aluminium frame
Dani Marti’s paintings make use of everyday materials to create portraits of family, lovers and strangers. The Pleasure Chest (Composition in Black and White) uses beads and costume jewellery found in charity shops made of black and white  beads and fake pearls to create an opulent surface suggestive of hedonism. The title refers to both the chest of the wearer and a figurative box filled with treasures. It speaks of a collective body and space of shared activity, reminiscent perhaps of the detritus of jewels thrown during the New Orleans Mardi Gras. It also hints at the name and branding of the longstanding sex-on-premise venue and adult store Pleasure Chest that was established on Oxford Street in 1979 and recently closed.

Dr Joseph Brennan,  review  @ Art Almanac 

Video link- ‘Notes for Bob’

IN CONVERSATION: DANI MARTI & JOSÉ DA SILVA