Friendship as a way of life at UNSW Galleries has reopened. This major exhibition celebrates LGBTQI+ partnerships, collaboration, visibility, sex, intimacy and knowledge. It features DANI MARTI’s major video installation ‘Notes for Bob’ (2012-16), as well as one of his wall sculptures.
Notes For Bob navigates issues of power and care in human relationships. The project has at its central subject a blind, gay man Marti met while on residency in New York with the Australia Council for the Arts in 2012, and it documents a number of exchanges between the pair.
Deprived of vision, Bob explains that for him “people are their voices” and his attractions focus on the individual pitch and tone of a voice. In Notes for Bob, Marti tenderly holds his subject and sings for him. As part of the extended project, Marti filmed and recorded 23 men singing. The artist gently encourages us to enter into Bob’s sensual universe and experience the fullness of an individual through their voice.
The curators of Friendship as a way of life have launched a series of digital initiatives including a virtual tour and an online series of live lectures, artist talks and performative actions that explore the themes of the show. It will run until 21 November.
Explore the online content here!
Images: Dani Marti, Notes for Bob, 2012-16, installation view at UNSW Galleries, 2020. Photos by Zan Wimberley.