On the weekend that I visited Linger, Dash, Talk (2023) I found myself in states akin to the exhibition’s title. I lingered, talked—but mostly “dashed,” if I’m honest—as I celebrated the sweaty, joyous, and quite frankly overwhelming three-weekend long party that was Sydney WorldPride, or “WP” as a friend referred to it. In the constant dash from one event or exhibition or program to another, it became clear to me that with the WP event-frenzy came an unprecedented level of queer representation and visibility.
Greater public visibility can be empowering and celebratory, but it is a double-edged sword, still too often obscuring undertows of anti-LGBTQIA+ violence, erasure, and censorship. As this review goes live, LGBTQIA+ activists are counter-protesting the latest in a string of growing far-right rallies and actions that saw the vandalisation of queer murals during WP and religious groups marching through Newtown. As Filipinx artist Bhenji Ra cautioned in a tweet in 2021, “What is visibility without protection? A trap.”
June Miskell is a writer, editor, and researcher living on unceded Gadigal and Wangal land. She teaches at UNSW Art & Design, Sydney where she is currently undertaking her PhD.
