Photographic print/Print
Maker & role
Gerwyn Davies (b.1985), Artist
Production date
01 Nov 2021
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Object detail
Title
Elizabeth Bay House
Production place
Collection
Measurements
H: 100 x W: 150cm (H: 1000 x W: 1500mm)
Production notes
Produced as part of a series of 12 photographic works for Iridescent exhibition at Museum of Sydney 4 Dec 2021 – 24 April 2022
Credit line
Commission, 2021
Corporate Collection, Museums of History New South Wales
Corporate Collection, Museums of History New South Wales
Caption
Elizabeth Bay House, Gerwyn Davies, 2021, archival inkjet print
Description
Queer contemporary photographic artist and costume maker Gerwyn Davies was commissioned to create 12 original photographs responding to 12 sites managed by what was then Sydney Living Museums (SLM) and the NSW State Archives and Records Authority (SARA) now Museums of History NSW. Davies makes a series of queer interventions into the sites, dramatically transforming them into stages upon which extravagant performances are played out for the camera. Rather than recount the familiar narratives of these properties, Davies has drawn upon the whispers and slivers of their lesser-known histories, reimagining them in a way that often challenges the official narratives using humour and subversion.
This image, taken in the Drawing Room of Elizabeth Bay House, was inspired by the natural history collection, and collecting habits of Alexander Macleay. An oversized, yellow fur covered beast sits on the sofa, challenging the social decorum and behaviour expected for this type of setting. The work is a subversive comment on the colonists’ obsession with categorising and labelling the natural world as a means of possessing and controlling it.
This image, taken in the Drawing Room of Elizabeth Bay House, was inspired by the natural history collection, and collecting habits of Alexander Macleay. An oversized, yellow fur covered beast sits on the sofa, challenging the social decorum and behaviour expected for this type of setting. The work is a subversive comment on the colonists’ obsession with categorising and labelling the natural world as a means of possessing and controlling it.
Accession number
HHT2021/14
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