Garrett Huxley (b. 1973) and Will Huxley (b. 1982) met in Melbourne in 2006 having both studied photography – Will at Edith Cowan University, Perth and Garrett at the Queensland College of Art, Brisbane. They soon began to collaborate, combining their separate practices of photography, filmmaking and costume design to create performance and photomedia works, strongly influenced by figures such as designer and performer Leigh Bowery, cult filmmaker John Waters and musician David Bowie.
The self portraits Smalltown Boy (Surfers Paradise) and Smalltown Boy (Perth) are from a series in which the artists recreated retro postcards to examine their shared experiences of growing up queer in suburban Australia, as well as their imaginings of what it would have meant to have met each other as teenagers. 'When you grow up not feeling accepted or comfortable in your own skin you find ways to feel safe,' the artists explain, 'and this for us often came through in costumes, masks and theatricality. Playing with identities gave us the confidence to … explore the most fabulous facets of ourselves.' The Huxleys have since worked with major Australian galleries and festivals, and performed and exhibited in cities including London, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Moscow, Melbourne and Berlin.
Purchased 2021
© The Huxleys
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