Party time

The work of David McDiarmid traverses the complex and overlapping histories of art, fashion, craft, gay liberation, music, sex, and identity politics. McDiarmid was an interdisciplinary artist who played a pivotal role in shaping Australian visual culture in the 1980s and 1990s. He was a dedicated gay liberation activist, and his personal politics were intertwined with his art. His work explored and celebrated his own sexual identity while scrutinising the stigmatisation of homosexuality.

Made when McDiarmid was living in New York, Party time is an example of his early use of holographic film, a then innovative product that would become a signature element in later works such as Love and hate 1991 (182.2021). The collage’s synthetic and reflective materials typify the aesthetics of 1980s club culture. They are combined with decorative motifs sourced from the artist’s collection of pattern books used for quilting and embroidering - a distinctly camp merging of the nightclub with domestic craft practices.