The portraits of Justin and Latai come from this giant series of works that I, in the end, worked on for six years, I think. I have proposed a framework, which is that we have the paper portraits printed onto fabric at large scale, partly because these two particular people really are larger than life people. And I'm inviting people to come together in sewing circles, although I'm actually not a sewer myself. So, I'm saying embroidery, but I also have been madly collecting all kinds of really great crystals and little pearls, real ones.
These, I think, might come in handy with Latai. They are crystal tears that I actually bought from the Job Warehouse in Melbourne when I was a school girl. And I've never known what to do with them; I just bought them because they were so beautiful. Tears, little crystal tears.
And I bought them from these two brothers who had been in Auschwitz. They had not survived with their mental health intact. It was really, really hard to shop there because they would chase you around the shop angrily, but they did sell me these tears. I feel like that now is finally the time to use them.
So, I'm inviting people to come and listen to stories or texts or music that Latai and Justin suggest to us. And, especially in the case of Justin, look at pictures of his new tattoos. I just think that will be so fun. Also, to have the work be made in the gallery so that their gallery becomes a site of production, not just an archive.
