Sunday Arts Magazine

Queens of the Pub’ is an explosive new exhibition of photographic images, films and costumes by Gerard O’Connor and Marc Wasiak. This project is about combining diversity, honouring the queen of the pub and recycling. The cast and content draws directly on people of diverse ages, backgrounds, gender and sexual orientation whilst focussing on different identities. This is an exquisite series of photographic images based on a coronation made from recycled social disposables, surviving buildings, queens from the sidewalk, the importance of social places, diversity and powerful women.

Throughout this photographic series, Gerard and Marc have honoured the unsung heroes who are the resilient Queens and real people of St Kilda. The ‘Queens of the Pub’ are the survivors and have created the places we love today. St Kilda was once the playground for the rich, then fell into being an unfashionable place in the late 1950s. Migrants, the LGBTQI community, musicians and artists have helped to revive St Kilda and made it an attractive place to live, play and work today.

In the 1970’s pubs were once crowned our official meeting place, became our mecca, our local and females ran these pubs. Gerard and Marc recycled trash into a true royal treasure where they recreated a royal coronation scene set in a modern day inner city setting. The tabloid style images are based on true stories of running a modern-day business where it was the women who held the licenses as men were seen to be unreliable drunks. In order to survive in the 1970s beyond being a bar, they opened their doors to young musicians and held gay nights.

The coronation scene is made from recycled social disposables paying royal homage to inner city hotels and pubs against a punk backdrop of the 1970’s. Gerard and Marc commissioned local artist and jewellery designer Danielle Zanetti to create spectacularly hand-made detailed jewellery and costumes from bottle tops and recycled garbage . Over two years has been spent transforming these materials into the royal Cape, Crown and royal Jewels for the shoot.

Beautifully hand made up cycled dresses were also created by Local Designers Two threads to complete the Royal congregation.

‘We used recycled materials collected from local drinking holes to turn seaside trash into spectacular costumes and treasure. The waste and leftovers of beer cans and gold and royal red bottle tops, things that would normally be placed in the bin were crafted into precious objects and glittering, beautiful recycled royal props for our Queens.’ Says O’Connor.

‘These materials were collected from busy bars, restaurants and hotels operating in St Kilda and were crafted for months of pre-production work by jewellers, fashion designers and stylists who reside or work in the inner city. This is a call out where one person’s waste becomes another person’s collection of royal treasures.’ O’Connor continues.

Wasiak concludes, ‘Set against a punk backdrop this was the most exciting positive period it lead to a community of diversity, art, fashion and music; putting Melbourne and St Kilda on the world music stage. We proudly roll out the beer soaked royal red carpet inviting you to our vibrant show ‘Queens of the Pub’. This is the future, the past and the only way to be a Queen. Wear your crown proudly even if it’s from the gutter.’

We perceive bodies as borders; curved spines that push against the weight of the world. Like a rising tide changing the shoreline they are constantly becoming – tender, flexing, magnetic and yielding. Repeatedly repairing themselves, yet falling prey to time and the limits of perception.

Curated by Kin Francis, The Body is More Than This presents visual narratives from six artists who identify as gender diverse and nonbinary. Works in this exhibition permeate across many ideas, from reckoning with histories of migration, experimenting with gender expression outside of Western restraints, and defining relationships with lands and family across distances.

Surrounded by the pillars and architecture of the Immigration Museum’s ground floor – Caleb Thaiday, Elijah Money, Luce Nguyễn-Hunt, Ari Tampubolon, Indra Liusuari, Kin Francis and Shin propose a new way of experiencing our bodies; seeing past borders: beyond preconceived cisgender identity and colonial understandings.

Playing as a part of the 2023 Midsumma Festival,

award-winning playwright and poet Amy May Nunn

returns to Theatre Works with their latest work; Lemon

Tree on Dreg Street. Incorporating music, ritual and rev-

elry, this joy filled premiere season is a heart-on-its-

sleeve ode to those who slip through the cracks, a love letter to the places we make sacred, and a celebration of

the deep human need for belonging.

Complete with a community of wonderfully oddball characters, the story of Lemon Tree on Dreg Street centres

around Twiglet and Boots, who live in a ramshackle house on the outskirts of suburbia. With their home, and the

buildings around them, just waiting to be gobbled up by developers, the pair is determined to make the most of

Summer while they can. But with an old Possum marrying their lemon tree, a vagabond Cowgirl officiating the

ceremony, and a Vulture circling the property, things are bound to get interesting…

“What makes this show different is the unusual balance it strikes between innocence and grit,” explains writer

Amy May Nunn. “There’s a wonderfully rich tapestry of poetry, music, and storytelling weaving in and out of the

play. A friend of mine described it as “Urban Queer A.A. Milne” and there’s definitely something in that. It has a

kind of grown-up storybook feeling. I’ve always been drawn to heightened worlds that are fantastical and com-

plex, like Spike Jonze’s adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are.”

“I think audiences will be surprised and delighted by the characters’ heightened personalities, hilarious ways of

expressing themselves, and slightly left-of-reality existence,” adds Director Miranda Middleton. “We’ve got a re-

markable team of creatives on board and we’re all working to create a piece like nothing you’ve seen before,

whilst also adding to the tapestry of epic and quintessentially Australian plays.”

This book is a series of vignettes about changes to Australian institutions,

organisations and systems that have significantly improved economic and

social well-being for Australians. Economic system innovations have had a

profound impact on our lives, from the invention of banking in the middle

ages to the organisations established by the United Nations post-WWII.

However, their intangible nature means that few people identify these

changes alongside physical inventions.

Although invention is normally an incremental process, with copying and

adaption being the norm, the authors focus on reforms that were principally

new to the world at the time of implementation. The book is not about the

reforms and how well they worked, per se, rather about the people and the

political struggle to get them adopted. The authors have chosen to focus

on the stories where Australia has either taken a global leadership role or

made a considerable advance in a particular new institution. What these

stories show is that leadership in institutional innovation can come from

many quarters: academia, the community, politics and the bureaucracy.

Often the most successful teams combine people from all quarters albeit

with support from the fourth estate. The work shows how many reforms

began with modest beginnings, often an ordinary person with a vision, and

how it takes several attempts to get change accepted.

This key volume can be used to teach students of economics, political

economy and politics. It illustrates the type of networks, actions and

advocacy that is needed to get reform started and implemented and is written

in a style to engage policy and think-tank audiences.

Benjamin MacEllen is a memoirist, lyricist, actor, poet, playwright, and activist who has been writing stories, songs, poems and plays since he was a young child.

He writes and speaks extensively about his experience as a transgender man which is also the focus of his memoir, A Cut Closer to Whole. He has produced and directed youth theatre in country Victoria, and written and recorded original songs on his album, Book of Dreams. He was a semi-finalist at the World Championship of Public Speaking in Chicago (2018). In his speaking engagements, both in person and in the media, he advocates for better understanding of LGBTIQA+ issues.

Ben is currently a participant in Midsumma Pathways Program (a nine-month mentorship and workshop program for LGBTQIA+ artists with disability) being mentored by acclaimed actor, playwright, and screenwriter Kate Mulvany. His latest project is writing a new Australian play set to be completed for a 2024 premiere.

Dick Gross AM, writer and composer said, “In this buoyant, occasionally saucy musical, the

protagonists fight the system to stay together. Twenty songs explore this journey.” he added, “In

this play, everyone cannot wait to split except for one couple. What is the nature of long term,

mature love in our lives?”

Explore not only the nature of love in its middle stages but also confront middle age issues that we

all must face at some time such as having children or not, the joys of coffee, post-menopausal sex,

masturbation, and the male midlife crisis!

Stephen talks to David and Neil about Films.

Experience, Create and Celebrate at the Victorian Pride Centre this summer with a huge Midsumma Festival program! Featuring cabaret, comedy, life drawing, science talks, spin classes and more.

Festival dates: Monday 23 January to Friday 11 February    |    Location: Victorian Pride Centre, 79-81 Fitzroy Street, St Kilda

Australia’s purpose-built home for LGBTIQ+ communities is joining the party with its first full season of Midsumma Festival programming. 47 sessions of 26 different events will be taking place throughout the Victorian Pride Centre’s Theatrette, Forum, gallery spaces and gorgeous Rooftop. With everything from art workshops to panel discussions, plays, parties, spin classes, and even a late-night piano bar – there’s something for everyone and every age this Midsumma Festival.  

The diverse program features a mix of free and ticketed events that showcase LGBTIQ+ artists and performers, foster social connection, facilitate important conversations, and enable active participation in fun and interactive classes and workshops. In 2023, the Victorian Pride Centre is proud to be one of eight Festival Hubs, and is excited to collaborate with Midsumma, along with a range of LGBTIQ+ organisations from cultural, arts, health, and community sectors.

Spring Awakening” is a bold musical adaption by Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater of German expressionist Frank Wedekind’s controversial 1891 play of the same. Featuring an electrifying rock/pop score, “Spring Awakening” follows the lives of a group of adolescents as they navigate their entry into sexual awareness. This ground-breaking musical, driven by a score that creates a juxtaposition between the world of the play and the genre of music, touches on topics still relevant to today’s youth, reflecting that yesterday’s problems are still today’s concerns.

Augmented reality, projections, soundscapes, inflatables, luminescence all at your fingertips. ‘What’s Up Stonnington’, is an immersive and interactive series of art installations built to intrigue and inspire.

Presented on the traditional land of the Boon Wurrung and the Wurundjeri people, this program transforms the space into a place of fun, joy, discovery, education, and imagination for all. The full program sees installations change every three weeks, encouraging constant collaboration and conversation amongst the community, artists, and visitors.

Each different iteration throughout the 6-month program presents an eclectic mix of creative formats that stimulate all the senses. Innovative, inclusive, engaging, and inspirational – the program promises a totally new multidimensional experience every time to keep you coming back for more. As well as a veritable smorgasbord of different artistic styles and practices, What’s Up Stonnington is proud to partner with gender-diverse, neuro-diverse, first nations, and differently-abled groups, to guarantee a little bit of something for everyone to share in and become an integral part of as we reinvigorate the City of Stonnington and get your creative senses tingling. Every one of the installations demonstrates the dynamic and ephemeral nature that excites and drives so much of our contemporary creative culture.