Bennett, A 2012, Families of Choice: celebrating queer sub-culture tribes of the North [data projection] the ProjectarT space at Northcote Civic Square,. Commissioned by the City of Darebin for the Midsumma Festival. 15 Jan – 5 Feb 2012. Interviews published in Darebin Leader, Moreland Leader, & MCV
‘Families of Choice: celebrating queer sub-culture tribes of the North’
Photographs by Alison Bennett
A public projection for the ProjectarT space at Northcote Civic Square
between January 15 and February 5, 2012 as part of the Midsumma
Festival 2012, commissioned by the City of Darebin.
Interview in MCV 17 January 2012
Families of Choice: celebrating queer sub-culture tribes of the North by Alison Bennett
A public projection for the ProjectarT space at Northcote Civic Square between January 15 and February 5, 2012 as part of Midsumma Festival 2012, for the City of Darebin
Melbourne has an extra-ordinary array of vital queer sub-cultures that support and affirm the emergence and exploration of new social relations and relationships. These are our ‘families of choice’.
Drawing on an archive of several thousand images of queer sub-cultures developed over six years of digging deep into the unique queer social scene of Melbourne’s inner northern suburbs, Bennett has selected positive images celebrating queer culture with a specific focus on the Northern Tribes. The selection of images are guided by those that, in the words of Sister Sledge, build on the theme: ‘we are family’.
The result is a data-projection cascade of positive images of celebrating the creation of our families of choice.
As a photographer, Bennett views the creation of positive images as a political strategy to affirm our sense of self and our sense of connection, of belonging. “On several occasions I have had young people tell me that they had not considered themselves as beautiful until they had seen these photographs.”
“I have been particularly inspired by William Yang’s groundbreaking photographs of Sydney gay community from the early 1980s. This project has also been likened to that of the contemporary anthopological practice of researching a culture from within. Some people have been photographed over a period of years and have become close friends.”
Bennett’s images of queer community have been published in most of the gay press in Melbourne: samesame.com.au, MCV, Southern Star, Cherrie and Dude zine. However there are many that have never been published and there has not yet been a retrospective overview of this long term project published or exhibited.
Interview in MCV 17 January 2012
Alison Bennett 