Cement Fondu in association with Sydney WorldPride presents Linger, Dash, Talk; an exhibition that platforms queer and First Nations identified artists, and seeks to hone in on tensions surrounding visibility, erasure and public-scrutiny, and the ways in which queer and Indigenous communities use encoded, private or anecdotal ‘languages.’ 

Through an exploration of language, gossip & dialogue, the artists variously use text to leverage community-building against (or adjacent to) dominant modes of kinship and relating. In the face of broad exclusions, slang languages become full of double-meanings and secret references — creating private moments of intimacy, connection and identification, yet allowing staunch moments of non-disclosure.

This exhibition moves these dialogues forward in an urgent and exciting way, hosting important new commissions, and re-presenting key existing works by queer identified First Nations artists. In so doing, it will make space for the tensions and navigations between that which is held invisible and private and that which is made visible.

Featuring newly commissioned works by poet and textile artist Kirli Saunders; painter Troy-Anthony Baylis; performance and film artists Sereima Adimate, Kiki Oner & Garden Reflexxx; as well as existing works by Jenna Lee and Mackenzie Lee, Benjy Russell, and Ellen Van Neerven.

Featuring works that draw on personal & archival histories; communal, collaborative and familial lineages of art-making; pop-culture references; and moments of vulnerable cultural exchange & (re)connection the exhibition draws on text-based practices, slang, gossip and other informal and encoded modes of communication.