I sit in the gloomy, almost oppressive environment of the Blumhardt Gallery at the Dowse Art Museum, in which a small but dazzling piece of curatorial handiwork is on display. Beneath me is a bench covered in pale-green vinyl, patterned with spots that are rough to the touch. The surface feels non-slip. It would not be amiss on the floor of a bathroom. I quickly think of urinals and just as quickly feel a flush of guilt for coming up with so stereotypical an association. Curated by Simon Gennard, the 2017 Blumhardt Foundation/Creative New Zealand Curatorial Intern at the Dowse, Sleeping Arrangements centres on a series of quilts made by renowned textile artist Malcolm Harrison (1941–2007). These works provide a departure point for a meditation on the ‘AIDS crisis’ of the 1980s and ’90s, and on queer histories in Aotearoa more broadly. …
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