22 July – 16 August 2020

Gerard O’Connor and Marc Wasiak

Queens of the Pub

Queens of the Pub is an exhibition of photographic images and costumes by Gerard O’Connor and Marc Wasiak. This project honours the queen of the pub, diversity and recycling, featuring a cast of people of diverse ages, backgrounds, gender and sexual orientation.

‘[Connor and Wasiak] assemble their works with all the finesse of a Michelin chef. While portraying scenes from different eras they do more than recreate the past as pastiche, they force it to confront the present day. Their costuming, always so intricate and precise, speaks nonetheless of a contemporary eye for fashion. Their scenes contain multiple narratives, distilling their ideas in a heady invention that trips the light fantastic between carny and critique, wit and wantonness, chaos and control. Working with an extensive team of production and post-production technicians, they bring the cinematic skills and sensibilities of the twenty-first century to parade past pleasures that dared not speak their name to a present in which the thrill of excess is more talked about than indulged.’

Alasdair Foster 

Gerard O’Connor and Marc Wasiak are an award winning artist duo who have worked together for over 20 years and have exhibited widely in Australia and internationally. In 2016 they exhibited in XIX Encuentros Abiertos, Festival de la Luz, Argentina, one of the largest photographic festivals in the world. In 2013 they exhibited at the Pingyao International Photography Festival, China’s largest and longest-running art-photo event, and won the Jin Hou Niao Zun award for best international work. Their works are in the collection of Ministerio de Cultura in Argentina, The Australian Embassy in Argentina and Government House, Canberra.

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