Todd Fuller Presents Ivan’s Angels

In commemoration of Sydney WorldPride, prolific award-winning artist Todd Fuller has created a hand-drawn animation. 

The animation is titled ‘No Use Crying Over Ripped Lace’ and acts as a historical interpretation of the 2017 Oxford Street gay hate crime attack on Ivan Flinn in front of Stonewall. The attack was stopped by drag queens Ivy League, Coco Jumbo, and Vybe.

In Todd’s animation, Coco Jumbo acts as a narrator to recall the night. 

“Finishing ARQ, getting a kebab, watching her drag-sister Ivy taking on the perpetrators before she moves into the scuffle to throw an aggressor in the bus lane.”

The animation created by Fuller contains over 1500 stills created on 16 pieces of paper. Designed in his signature style, each frame is meticulously drawn, captured on film, and then erased. This gives the effect of movement. 

Fuller explained, “the act of drawing and erasing creates a ghostly effect on the page. 

“My drawings and animations sometimes have the remnants of hundreds of images allowing the work to speak to themes of loss and memory. 

“Ultimately, by telling queer stories in this way, I hope to illustrate the vulnerability of our queer histories, they, like us, are vulnerable, and we need to make concerted efforts to share, protect and preserve our LGBTIQ stories to help guide and educate future generations, that is what my work is really about.”

Also included with the artwork is an oral history, recorded with Coco Jumbo and scored by Sydney Composer Paul Smith.

The artwork was commissioned by the State Library of New South Wales as part of their World Pride exhibition ‘Pride (R)evolution’.

.M Contemporary Gallery in Darlinghurst will house the larger body of work. This includes urban landscapes of Darlinghurst, some NSFW ceramics, studies, and drawings.

Talking about the artwork, Fuller said, “this incident was a real media moment during the 2017 plebiscite. 

“The timing and the spectacle of drag rescuers helped pique interest so the event received broad coverage, it illustrated how vulnerable our community was and helped educate about the ugly reality of discrimination for the LGBTIQ community.”

Fuller continued, “Investigating this work, there was a real tension between jovial representations on breakfast television and the brutal reality and trauma from this event. These drag queens were truly heroic, another moment of resilience and strength from the drag leaders of Oxford street.”

Fuller hand-drawn animations focus on “overlooked or underrepresented moments from Australia’s queer history.”

In the past, Fuller’s art has focused on Captain Moonlite, James Nesbit, Troughman, Edward Feeney, Charles Marks, and 18th-century Dutch Sailors Adriaan Spoor and Pieter Engelse.

‘No Use Crying Over Ripped Lace’ can be experienced at the State Library of New South Wales from February 18 – July 9. The entire body of work is on view at .M Contemporary from February 23 – March 11.