What’s On Sydney: The Huxleys – Bloodlines
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When we think about the horrors of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the tragedy of the millions of lives lost, it’s staggering to remember the creative souls that were forever silenced – the love songs never written, the forever blank canvases, the beautifully crafted words never read.
Australian visual and performance artists, The Huxleys, made up of husbands Will and Garrett, are equally passionate about shining their dazzling lights on these artists lost with current exhibition, The Huxleys: Bloodlines.
‘Tribute To Artists And Heroes We’d Lost To HIV’
Chatting to Star Observer, Will talked about the origins of the exhibition and how great things have grown from modest beginnings, saying, “We started the Bloodlines series as a tribute to artists and heroes we’d lost to HIV and AIDS over the years, as part of a Melbourne festival called Photo 22.
“From that, a curator for Carriageworks, Jacob Boehme, saw those four works and basically came to us and asked if we were interested in showing the works and then Sydney Festival heard about it, then WorldPride were also like, ‘Let’s do it for WorldPride” so it’s snowballed into this really beautiful, larger thing than when we started.”
It’s a spectacle to behold, one of the wonders being a, literally, massive tribute to a premier symbol of the AIDS epidemic, the AIDS Memorial Quilt, with Will saying, ”We made a new AIDS quilt which was inspired by the AIDS quilts that were made in the 80s and 90s.
“We spent some time at Thorne Harbour in Melbourne and they were able to bring out the archival AIDS quilts that were made and they were so beautiful and so touching. This quilt has got almost 40 artists and we hand sewed and hand sequinned this new large quilt, it’s about four and a half metres high and four metres wide.”
The Huxleys are hoping this exhibition will leave a mark, with their quilt in particular slated to play a rich note in our collective queer history. Until specifically pointed out in our interview, the fact seemed to have escaped Will, replying, “Thank you so much, that’s such a beautiful vibe and I didn’t think about that in the future, I love that idea. I think it’s so important as queer people to keep those stories passing down and never forgetting who came before you because they probably had to fight harder.”
The Huxleys: Bloodlines – January 5 to March 5 – FREE @ Carriageworks
