Latest news with #SydneyMardiGrasParade
Sydney Morning Herald
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Sydney Opera House celebrates work of late artist with a kiss of light
The work of artist David McDiarmid will illuminate the Sydney Opera House sails during Vivid Sydney – 30 years after the activist's death from an AIDS-related illness. The seven-minute projection, Kiss of Light, will celebrate McDiarmid's vibrant artistic practice, heralded as a declaration of identity, love and protest. McDiarmid's executor and co-curator, Dr Sally Gray, said she had wanted her friend's work to live on beyond his death in 1995, aged 42. 'I've always wanted David's work to be prominently shown in Sydney, the city in which he evolved his unique fusion of queer political activism and aesthetic sensibility, and Kiss of Light is a spectacular realisation of this desire,' Gray said. Hobart-born, McDiarmid's art traversed art, craft, fashion, music, gay liberation and identity politics, popular culture and community engagement. In 1972, McDiarmid became the first person in Australia to be arrested at a gay rights protest, while demonstrating outside ABC studios in Sydney in response to management's decision to cancel a news segment on gay rights. He was also one of the 78ers – referred to the participants of the first Sydney Mardi Gras Parade in 1978. Vivid's director Gill Minervini encountered McDiarmid when she was appointed Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras's first festival director. 'Having worked with David and being witness to his incredible artistry first hand, this year's Lighting of the Sails is extra special,' she said. 'Although at first glance David's story might seem tragic, we feel Kiss of Light will inspire hope and positivity.'
The Age
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
Sydney Opera House celebrates work of late artist with a kiss of light
The work of artist David McDiarmid will illuminate the Sydney Opera House sails during Vivid Sydney – 30 years after the activist's death from an AIDS-related illness. The seven-minute projection, Kiss of Light, will celebrate McDiarmid's vibrant artistic practice, heralded as a declaration of identity, love and protest. McDiarmid's executor and co-curator, Dr Sally Gray, said she had wanted her friend's work to live on beyond his death in 1995, aged 42. 'I've always wanted David's work to be prominently shown in Sydney, the city in which he evolved his unique fusion of queer political activism and aesthetic sensibility, and Kiss of Light is a spectacular realisation of this desire,' Gray said. Hobart-born, McDiarmid's art traversed art, craft, fashion, music, gay liberation and identity politics, popular culture and community engagement. In 1972, McDiarmid became the first person in Australia to be arrested at a gay rights protest, while demonstrating outside ABC studios in Sydney in response to management's decision to cancel a news segment on gay rights. He was also one of the 78ers – referred to the participants of the first Sydney Mardi Gras Parade in 1978. Vivid's director Gill Minervini encountered McDiarmid when she was appointed Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras's first festival director. 'Having worked with David and being witness to his incredible artistry first hand, this year's Lighting of the Sails is extra special,' she said. 'Although at first glance David's story might seem tragic, we feel Kiss of Light will inspire hope and positivity.'
