Dear Queensland
Interactive online work, ongoing (established in 2021).
Dear Queensland is an online interactive work Shannon Novak developed with the support of Michaela-Sophie Chin, Senior Programming Officer (Public Engagement), and the wider team at the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA). This work made space for local (Queensland) LGBTQI+ communities to write open letters to the general public about what life is really like in Queensland as LGBTQI+ people, the challenges and triumphs.
People could submit a letter online (with could include text and/or imagery) that would then display in an online gallery for the general public to view. These submissions are now part of a permanent archive in the QAGOMA Research Library Special Collections.
You can view the online gallery here: https://play.qagoma.qld.gov.au/dear-queensland/
This exhibition was part of a wider multi-site body of work Novak developed for APT10 titled Make Visible: Queensland which aims to grow support for LGBTQI+ communities in Queensland, Australia by making visible challenges and triumphs for those communities. It is Novak’s contribution to The 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT10) in 2021 at QAGOMA.
The home page for “Dear Queensland” with a search function.
Viewers must scroll down the page to view submissions from local (Queensland) LGBTQI+ communities.
An example of a written submission. Selecting “Read Letter” expands the letter to a wider view.
An expanded view of a written submission. Scrolling on this frame allows viewers to read the entire submission, navigate through different letters using “Prev Letter” and “Next Letter”, and see associated tags as selected by the person who made the submission.
Some contributions included trigger warnings before opening.
When a letter is opened a trigger warning with options appears. This confirmation frame provides the option to view the letter, leave the letter, or view the letter and remove future trigger warnings.
Contributors could opt to include images in their submissions.
An expanded view of a submission with an image. The expand icon shows a larger version of the image.
We Will Always Be Here, E. Herbert.
Untitled, Ruth Finneran.
Untitled, Arabellajk.
Untitled, Bowie.
Selected quotes from submissions are placed at various points on the home page.