you did care about me didn’t you
it doesn’t stop
for me
new city new life new boyfriend
hanging out with my new friends
my heart is so broken
but so big
i only do friendship or romance
even if we never hang out again
it feels like
we’re friends forever
i think my friend died from loneliness
I’m scared of the same
we talked about it
nothing is more important than hanging out is an exhibition about friendship by Sarah Brasier, jemi gale, Nat Thomas, with their friends Hannah Gartside, tiaki teremoana, Marian Tubbs, Nicholas Currie, Tyza Hart, and Holly Wheeler.
Sarah Brasier is a Naarm based artist, and a current participant in the Gertrude Studio Program in (2020-2023). She is interested in friendship as a creative motivator and aims to build a supportive community of people in the art world. The main characters in her work are often non-human: anthropomorphic animals, plants and insects struggling with the pressures of daily life under capitalism.
jemi gale is an artist and pop girl working between Naarm and Meanjin. She makes paintings about love. Her debut single ‘only u’ is forthcoming through Emotion Punk Records.
Nat Thomas is a Naarm based artist whose practice covers collaboration, performance, installation and writing. Recent bodies of work include Stage Fright @ Gertrude Contemporary, In Every Dream Home a Heart Ache @ Flash Forward and Postcards from the Edge for The National 2019. nat&ali (1999-2005) and nattysolo (2016-) critique personal histories and popular culture.
Image: Sarah BRASIER / Less house, more home / Acrylic paint on kiln dried birch on hoop pine stretcher / © Sarah Brasier