Display of Affection No.3
Garments: Macramé, mariners rope, dress mannequin.
Photography: Pigment ink on archival paper, framed in Tasmanian Oak.
Design, installation, photography:
Luke George
Sub/ject: Mark Binette
Photography Location: Pipemakers Park, Maribyrnong
Exhibited for Midsumma Festival, Temperance Hall, May 2021
Photography editing: Darkroom Projects
Printing: Matte Image
Obsessed with rope as a medium, Luke entangles craft with kink to playfully unpick social tensions and connectivity. A kind of hard-soft. Through the DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION series, Luke explores queer social choreographies and the queering of public and private spaces. The installations and interventions consider the fragility and temporality of queer intimacies, glimpsing traces of bodies lingering and loitering in space and time; non-verbal dances of anticipation, tensions and subtle signals; weaving desire-lines through unsuspecting spaces.
For this series, Luke considers the potential for different types of masculinities through the qualities of beauty, intimacy, connection and care. The attention is on the perspective of the sub/ject (‘bottom’) and their gaze back at the viewer. Luke’s role and responsibility as artist (‘Rigger’), is to collaborate with his sub/ject, supporting and sustaining them, seeing to their needs and desires, as well as his own.
For DISPLAY OF AFFECTION 3, Luke handcrafted an haute couture rope bondage gown. A garment that binds itself to a person, and people to each other. The gown was crafted for Mark
Mark is into cruising and pleasure in public
They respond to a hard bind and soft touch
An exhibitionist, Mark likes to be at the centre of the heat, the subject of desire
Luke bound Mark into the gown onsite at an historically significant cruising space in Melbourne’s western suburbs, Pipemaker’s Park. an active and busy beat on a condemned site, men climb through a cut in the wire fencing and cruise through a semi open warehouse with makeshift darkrooms fashioned out of corrugated iron. The site is managed by the Living Museum of the West, who don’t seek to drive out the beat-goers as through the 24/7 activity, the cruisers become quasi invigilators and security, caring for the space and for each other.
Supporters
Displays of Affection is presented by Temperance Hall and generously supported by the City of Port Phillip Local Festivals Fund and The Victorian State Government. The digital exhibition and launch event are supported by the Department of Premier and Cabinet Pride Events and Festivals Fund as part of Midsumma Festival 2021.