Melbourne fashion, editorial, portrait, advertising and fine art photographer, Gerard O’Connor, has a penchant for intricate, ornate detailing, achieved through a long-standing partnership with stylist. Marc Wasiak. It’s an eye-catching style.
The pair’s exhibition, Victoriana Pleasure Garden, has been accepted for display in the Belles Artes Museum of Modern Art in Buenos Aires.
Meanwhile, their two-year project, Queens of the Pub, a display of photographs, films and costumes, has been touring Melbourne and is about to arrive in Sydney, at Galerie Pompom in Chippendale from July 22 to August 16.
The project combines the themes of diversity, a tribute to the “queens of the pub” and recycling. The cast and content include people of diverse ages, backgrounds, gender and sexual orientation while focussing on different identities. The series of photographic images is based on a coronation made from recycled social disposables, surviving buildings, queens from the sidewalk. It highlights the importance of social places, diversity and powerful women.
Gerard and Marc’s Queens of the Pub are the “real people” of St Kilda, they say. They are survivors and have created the places loved today. St Kilda was once the playground for the rich, then dissolved into an unfashionable place in the late 1950s. Migrants, the LGBTQI community, musicians and artists have helped to revive St Kilda and made it an attractive place to live, play and work today. The exhibition also references the pubs that were “official” meeting places in the 1970s, “They became our mecca, our local and females ran these pubs,” they noted.
“We set our exhibition in St Kilda, but the same story is true throughout Australia,” O’Connor stated.
Gerard and Marc have recycled trash to recreate a royal coronation scene set in a modern-day inner-city setting. The images are based on true stories of modern pubs, run by the women who held the licenses as men were seen to be unreliable drunks. In order to survive in the 1970s beyond being a bar, they opened their doors to young musicians and held gay nights. The pair commissioned local artist and jewellery designer, Danielle Zanetti, to create the hand-made detailed jewellery and costumes in the images from bottle tops and recycled garbage. Over two years were spent transforming these materials into the royal cape, crown and royal Jewels for the shoot. The hand-made upcycled dresses were created by local designers, Two Threads.
“We used recycled materials collected from local drinking holes to turn seaside trash into spectacular costumes and treasure. The waste and leftovers of beer cans and gold and royal red bottle tops, things that would normally be placed in the bin were crafted into precious objects and glittering, beautiful recycled royal props for our Queens. We actually made more work than anticipated due to the fantastic opportunities and focussed on the iconic,” O’Connor noted.
‘These materials were collected from busy bars, restaurants and hotels operating in St Kilda and were crafted for months of pre-production work by jewellers, fashion designers and stylists who reside or work in the Port Phillip City. This is a call-out that one person’s waste can become another person’s collection of royal treasures.”
Wasiak added, “Set against a punk backdrop this was the most exciting positive period. It led to a community of diversity, art, fashion and music, putting Melbourne and St Kilda on the world music stage. We proudly roll out the beer-soaked royal red carpet inviting you to our vibrant show, Queens of the Pub. This is the future, the past and the only way to be a Queen. Wear your crown proudly even if it’s from the gutter.”
The Queens of the Pub has finished its run at the George Hotel in Melbourne and will open at Chapel Off Chapel shortly.
