The poet and musician daniel ward has written a letter to Sydney-based, Aotearoa New Zealand-born artist Ella Sutherland. Meeting while Ella was undertaking the Creative New Zealand Berlin Visual Arts Residency at Künstlerhaus Bethanien in the twelve months from October 2022, Sutherland and ward seized the opportunity of this publication to visit the archival collection Sutherland had been exploring while making her residency exhibition, Argot. Reflecting on their shared experiences as newcomers to the city, and the technologies and histories referenced in the exhibition, ward’s letter continues the commitment to queer storytelling deep within Sutherland’s practice.
dear Ella,
thank you again for agreeing to visit the queer archive at the Schwules Museum together on Wednesday. although brief, it was helpful to view some of the lesbian periodicals that you have been researching for your exhibition, Argot, at Künstlerhaus Bethanien. before you arrived i had a chance to watch people walk around the museum and chatter in its small rear café. a gorgeous mixture of queer tourists, art workers and eager volunteers provided a familiar ecosystem of lanyard-donned community types. upstairs, the archive room was small, tidy and disciplined. entering the archive and approaching its materials, i noticed the similarity to entering your own exhibition. in both rooms, at first, i was overwhelmed by all of the objects in their neat, grand order. i tend to behave within these semi-formal settings (libraries, galleries, museums) with a particular self-consciousness. perhaps there’s something to say about their mannered seduction, also. each time i pulled out a book, as each time i arrived to a new work within the gallery, i found myself careful and attentive; receptive but cautious and polite, as if to adopt the personality of the bookshelves or walls themselves. however, once given the distance and time required to land in either space, there was, of course, a wonderful opportunity for confidence and inquiry....
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