Our first exhibition for 2023 is Death: And Becoming.

Featuring:: BLECK, Annie Parnel, Antony Youssef, Ash Kok, Enoch Mailangi, Mark Mailler, jonny seymour

Curated by Imbar Amira Nassi

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As inevitable as change, pain and the beat of our hearts is the ‘end’ of it all, and throughout the past few years we have witnessed so much dying. Death is a multitudinous transition, embodied in so many ways and actioned through so many mediums.

We’ve seen all kinds of death:

many (and continuous) deaths of ‘normal’ and familiar
temporary death of shared spaces
death of loved ones
death of habits and hobbies
death of thought patterns and routine
death of health
death of dreams
death of imagined timelines and future visions

We’ve also seen death that feels tangible in other ways ie. the death of spaces, friends, of friendships, family and strangers.

For as long as queers have existed (longer than time), we have been queering death. Octavia Butler says “god is change” and that strikes an especially deep chord when considering the last hurrah, recognising the transitional elements inherent in dying. The body transitions from warm to cold, from container of a life force to fertiliser for something soil-based and new, the energy it carries transitions from ? to ?? (not sure about that one yet but we don’t really need to be).

“Every action has an equal and opposite reaction” is Newton’s Third Law. Death may look like the closing of a door but if we shift windows for just a second, we can sneak glimpses of it as a movement, a progression, a ~becoming~ from something known to something else.

Much of the ways we now engage with death are the results of centuries if not millennia of colonisation. Hoping to contribute to the shifting of windows, Death: and Becoming is an open invitation to sit with the pain and discomfort and reclaim it, transmuting the heaviness in hopes of nourishing fresh lenses of liberation, expansion and mayhaps, even, a touch of joy.

With artists from a range of cultural backgrounds and lived experience, the exhibition showcases alternate practices and processes surrounding Death: and (it’s inevitable) Becoming. Transferred by solemn, silent screen, textile tethers, smooth and soul-full sound work and breathing-dying altar space, each of the artists tenderly invites us into their thought and/or heart space where the grief and the love hold hands and are one.

The Bearded Tit acknowledges that this exhibition takes place on Aboriginal land which was never ceded. We would like to acknowledge the Gadigal People, the traditional custodians of this land, and pay our respects to Elders past and present. We also extend deep gratitude to the land itself for holding us as we create, love, grieve and become.

This exhibition is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.