Queer Stories from the NGV Exhibition (National Gallery of Victoria)
Photo by Ponch Hawkes. No title (Women holding hands in front of graffiti, 'Lesbians are lovely') (1973); printed (2018) – as seen in Queer Stories exhibition, 2022. I've been to the Queer Stories exhibition twice - because you need to give it a good deal of concentrated time. I had imagined there'd be plenty of images like this wonderful photo by Ponch Hawkes - yet this kind of loving, fun, 'lesbians are lovely' representation was rare, in fact the above, and Ponch Hawkes' second exhibit below, was all I found of this 1970s tone. Yet there's masses to see, and something for everyone, from outrageous fashion (I really liked the tuxedo jacket and trousers designed for women) ... to statues from antiquity. Two of my favourite Sapphists, Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf, had a singular spot on the wall, and there were some very interesting women artists I hadn't known about. To my great surprise, I came across a display case containing an album