WE ARE ALL PARTICIPANTS in a social game of looking and being looked at, seeing and being seen. How are identity, intimacy and community shaped by this, and how does this inform our connection with place? Seeing and Being Seen celebrates the many ways in which we construct and inhabit social space, and explores how we might adapt and challenge its codes.
Students participating in UNSW’s Curating: Social Space course will work with emerging and established artists whose practices question and engage with themes of identity, intimacy and the contemporary meaning of place. Celebrating cultural diversity and the rise of Sydney’s LGBT movement, and drawing inspiration from the legacy of Oxford St as a site of radical and creative interventions and Paddington as a home to artists and performers, this ambitious project reflects on this history with the goal of contributing to the revitalisation of this important area. Artists will explore what it means to see and be seen in the cultural context of Paddington and Sydney today through live mural painting, performance, installation, sound and projection.