Boy/girl;
Good/bad;
Happy/depressed;
Tender/aggressive;
Alive/dead;
Perpetuating binaries are limitations for potential complexities and deeper human truths. Can we be exclusively one without the other or is our glass of happiness only carved out by the depth of our depression? Throughout an ongoing and evolving duplicate portraiture series, Lucy Nguyễn-Hunt delves into the core of what it means to subconsciously and actively resisting gender binaries. Adorning the Outerspace Window Gallery with domestic material to investigate personal architecture from the inside out, the artist is engaging with how gender is expressed in a public versus private space. In what ways is queerness performed, hidden, innate and suppressed, and how do marginalised identities find shelter behind the curtain within the glass closet? Indulging in fantasies not yet outwardly explored, Nguyễn-Hunt embodies two versions of the self; one which exists in the present on the brink of death and one that is begging to be reborn.
As We Stand is a capsule exhibition curated by Georgia Hayward and installed in the Outer Space Window Gallery, showcasing six local early-career artists; Kyra Mancktelow, Paula de la Rua Cordoba, Dylan Mooney, Ruaa Al-Rikabi, Amy Sargeant and Lucy Nguyễn-Hunt who each use their practice to take a stand on current socio-cultural issues through prophesying courses of action. Responding to a diverse array of contemporary issues, the artists challenge cultural hegemony and socio-political dysfunctionality to establish and celebrate narratives of intersectionality, cultural expression, queer liberation and decolonisation.
Lucy Nguyễn-Hunt is an emerging artist with a persisting interest in healing personal and community traumas through a predominantly lens-based practice. Perceiving through the gaze of a Queer and culturally hybrid being, Nguyễn-Hunt seeks to decolonise the self through reimagining and reconstructing the body and systems it exists within. They navigate Australia with the intent of unlearning and appreciating the inherent duality of diasporic cultural experiences and gender binary. In February 2021, Nguyễn-Hunt co-founded ANTHEM ARI, an artist-run-initiative working to provide a dedicated platform to celebrate the practices of First Nations, diasporic, and LGBTQIA+ identifying creatives of colour in Australia.
