New online magazine capturing impact of Covid-19 on local artists

AAR-Nevo-Zisin-by-Proud-MinorityCapturing the imagination, mood and impact on local artists during the extended lockdown period, Exhibiting Culture Online is a new online magazine that will feature local artists with connections to Darebin, artworks and articles over the next six months.

The magazine’s website will showcase stories curated by local content creators including Sam Elkin, Olivia Koh and Vidya Rajan, telling a story that is unique to Darebin yet still relatable to all Victorians.

An initiative of the City of Darebin, Exhibiting Culture Online was created to support artists and audiences during a difficult year, with the artworks displayed in many forms including performing arts, visual arts, literary and multidisciplinary.

The magazine content is beautiful, touching, funny, meaningful and honest and can be seen from 2 December onwards, with new content uploaded in January and February.

In the first collection of works, curated by Sam Elkin, LGBTIQA+ artists from across the City of Darebin interrogate the experience of lockdown from a myriad of queer and gender non-conforming perspectives and provide a snapshot of our collective experience of isolating our bodies from one another.

This magazine gives considerable space to a number of trans and gender diverse artists who have chosen to explore their relationship with their body and memory during lockdown, including Brooke Murray’s video essay finding a home in one’s body and Nevo Zisin’s beautiful love poem to Thornbury.

Roz Bellamy’s essay about revisiting teenage memories, Yves Rees exploration of the gendered and racialized dimensions of hair and Elkin’s own essay about return to the local swimming pool post lockdown 2.0.

Tas Armstrong and Ren Dowling shed further light on trans and gender diverse experiences by presenting the first in what will hopefully be many ‘Coffee Chats with Trans Chaps’, which celebrates trans masculine lives with humour, honesty and positivity.

Matto Lucas, a beloved local photographer synonymous with the queer scene in Melbourne, has created a series of arresting photomontages to memorialize a decade of queer events, while Gemma Cafarella pays tribute to the cooking, humour and strength of her 92-year-old Nonna Connie, who she was unable to see during lockdown.

Artist Liv Fay captures fragmentary memories of gardening and clay making at home alone, while PlanYourLift Productions presents a hilarious tribute to sharehouse living during lockdown.


Exhibiting Culture Online can now be viewed via the Darebin Arts website. For more information, visit: www.darebinarts.com.au for details.

Image: Nevo Zisin – photo by Proud Minority