Always always

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.

This work from McDiarmid’s Kiss of light series is closely related to one of his celebrated ACON safe sex campaign posters. It features a naked, HIV-positive male with a square head resembling the bushranger Ned Kelly in his armour. The figure represents the gay male’s renewed status as a sexual outlaw and his courageous resilience during the AIDS epidemic. Curator Jason Smith has written, ‘The painterly, haptic qualities of the [Kiss of light] gouaches lend an important tenderness and intimacy to McDiarmid’s representations of the masculine, in striking contrast to the predominantly photographic representations of those suffering from AIDS at the time.’