DAVID MCDIARMID: WHEN THIS YOU SEE REMEMBER ME
David McDiarmid arrested outside the ABC studios, Sydney 1972. He was the first person to be arrested in Australia demonstrating as a Gay Liberation activist for gay civil rights.
Photo: John Storey
This major retrospective of the vibrant, provocative and pioneering work of leading Australian artist, designer and gay activist David McDiarmid was presented at the National Gallery of Victoria in 2014, with Sally Gray as its Guest Curator.
McDiarmid’s work defies classification, encompassing interconnected histories of art, craft, fashion, music, sex, gay liberation and identity politics. The exhibition covered the artist’s early gay liberation work; New York graffiti and disco quilts; fashion collaborations with Linda Jackson; his Rainbow Aphorism and Gothic Aphorism works; work produced as Sydney Gay Mardi Gras artistic director; posters created for the AIDS Council of NSW and other influential work developed in the context of AIDS, sexual politics and safe sex in the 1990s.
Reviews
Sonia Harford (2014) “Rainbow retrospective of artist’s sardonic tributes to Australiana” Sydney Morning Herald May 9 2014
Daniel Mudie Cunningham, (2014) “When This You See Remember Me: David McDiarmid at the NGV”, Art Monthly Australia, Issue 273, Sept 2014
Robert Nelson (2014) “David McDiarmid’s erotic medium conveys his potent message”, The Sydney Morning Herald, Aug 5 2014
Marcus O’Donnell (2014) “From camp to gay to queer: David McDiarmid HIV/AIDS art”, The Conversation, Auf 26 2014
Maura Edmond (2014) “David McDiarmid: When This You See Remember Me”, Primer, May 30 2014
Margaret Mayhew (2014) “When This You See Remember Me: David McDiarmid”, Artlink, Sept 2014
Trude Elliingson (2014) “Plastics In art No. 1” NGV Blog, Jul 22 2014
Sandi Mitchell (20014) “Plastics in Art No 2.” NGV Blog, Aug 19 2014
Helen Casey (2014) “Plastics in Art No 3.”, NGV Blog, Aug 21 2014
Matt Hurst (2014) “David McDiarmid: When This You See Remember Me”, Open Journal, Aug 2014
Jordon Christodolou (2014) “David McDiarmid: Shaking things up at the NGV”, Couturing, May14, 2014
Related projects