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NSW State Library stages one of Australia’s largest ever queer exhibitions

Tuesday 14 February 2023

Queer curators, creatives and activists have come together to produce a major exhibition — opening Saturday 18 February — that shines a spotlight on little-known LGBTQI+ heroes and stories drawn from the Library’s vast collection, alongside subversive voices of today.

Pride (R)evolution celebrates the lives, loves and works that have historically been overlooked or hidden, through an immersive display of 250 photographs, posters, letters, scrapbooks, clothing, film and sound — as well as newly commissioned pieces from queer and trans writers and artists.

According to exhibition co-curator Catherine Freyne: “This is a chance to encounter some of the characters and dynamics that have shaped Sydney’s queer history — from hook-ups to ACT-UP, Ballroom to ball sports, fag hags to radical drag, and coalition to intersectionality.”

“The exhibition resembles a kind of queer smorgasbord,” she says. “With the space organised according to stages of the day — from twilight to night to dawn to day — visitors can expect an embodied, sensory, immersive experience.”

Exhibition visitors will meet LGBTQI+ pioneers including:

  • Doris Fish (1952–1991), aka Philip Mills, the legendary performer, artist and writer who pioneered radical drag in Sydney and San Francisco and starred in the cult sci-fi drag film Vegas in Space. Read Doris’ personal letters to Danny Abood (1954–2021), her Sylvia and the Synthetics co-member.
  • Allan Booth (1959–1990). His poster designs were familiar to those who attended early Mardi Gras, but little is known about his private, illustrated diaries where he detailed his fight with HIV/AIDS, including notes on blood results, intrusive treatments and the precariousness of living. The diaries will go on public display for the first time.
  • Barry Kay (1932–1985), a London-based Australian stage designer whose work with the Australian Ballet will be celebrated in May 2023. The Pride (R)evolution exhibition includes over 100 photographic portraits by Kay of transgender women and drag queens in mid-70s Sydney that have never before been published or displayed.
  • Nellie Small (1900–1968), a cross-dressing vaudeville star and jazz singer from Darlinghurst who played with identity markers around both gender and race.
  • Ida Leeson (1885–1964), a State Library hero who became the first female Mitchell Librarian in 1932. Her appointment faced some opposition due to her gender, working-class background and ‘unorthodox’ choice of partner in Florence Birch, a YWCA official.

Download full media release (PDF 853KB)