Shannon Novak: Holding Space
Creating spaces that declare difference, Shannon Novak offers alternative modes of thinking about marginalised sexual and gender identities.
Image credit: Shannon Novak, Birfrōst, 2021, vinyl on floor, dimensions variable, in Mānawatia Takatāpui / Defending Plurality, 2021, Tauranga Art Gallery, Tauranga, New Zealand. Photo: Shannon Novak and Tauranga Art Gallery
Artist Shannon Novak does not shy from the bracingly real. Exploring questions of acceptance and rejection, dominance and need, desire and fear, Novak is part artist and part activist, working to platform issues relating to the LGBTQIA+ community – or what he refers to as the ‘rainbow community’. While it is easy to look past social, economic and political issues affecting LGBTQIA+ rights in Australia – which have been transformed with the milestone recognition of same sex marriage in 2017 and the recognition of domestic and de facto relationships since 2009 – real progress in redressing lived discrimination and feelings of isolation and rejection faced by this community have been slow.
Within this area of enquiry, Novak’s projects are characterised by his engagement with specific LGBTQIA+ communities at a specific time and in a specific place. By consulting with various communities and their stakeholders, he develops bespoke interventions or infrastructures using the language of abstraction, space, feeling and experience to build systems of connection, visibility and support. “I’ve been drawn to this subject because of death,” Novak tells me. “As time goes by, I’ve seen a lot of friends go through anxiety, depression and suicide. This was a large trigger and motivator to want to do something. To take action and look at why that is happening.”
Novak’s latest commission was developed for the 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT10) at Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art ...Subscribe to read this article in full
