Pride Festival highlights Auckland Council’s support for an inclusive future

With support from Auckland Council, local artists are showcasing their work on a variety of platforms around the City Centre during Auckland Pride Festival 2020 which runs for two weeks from Saturday 1st February until Sunday 16th February across the Auckland region.

The festival has been running for the past six years and features a line-up of social activities and programmes especially coordinated for New Zealand’s rainbow community.

This year, the council’s Auckland Design Office (ADO) is supporting two festival programmes, Queer Pavilion and Queer Portraits of Auckland.

Queer Pavilion is being held at Albert Park from 1st to 7th February and features nine LGBTQI+ artists presenting 12 high-quality works on a drifting structure, and fittingly takes place at the site of New Zealand’s first public Gay Liberation protest, in 1972.

Auckland Council’s City Centre Place Activation Team Leader Barbara Holloway says the performances, workshops and exhibitions celebrate the city’s unique mix of cultures, sexualities and gender identities.

Holloway notes “this free public activation will allow Aucklanders to enjoy and experience the amazing talents on offer and at the same time increase awareness and acceptance of the local queer community.”

Queer Portraits of Auckland will run from 1st to 16th February with lightboxes on display throughout Freyberg Place and the Ellen Melville Centre. Each lightbox will feature individual images of the LGBTQ+ and Queer AF community.

Young photographer and visual storyteller Becki Moss says the inspiration behind Queer Portraits of Auckland came about from her involvement with Olivia Coupe’s Queer AF nightclub and events.

Queer AF prides itself on providing a safe space for LGBTQ+ members to champion themselves and their identities as well as providing a platform for emerging queer artists, makers and DJs.

Moss explains “after attending these events, I was inspired to start photographing the beautiful humans who attended, and I will continue to do so in the future.

“The portraits in this collection were shot on location at the Queer AF at Basement Theatre.”

Moss says a lot of her work focuses on creating meaningful connections with the people she captures – before she picks up her camera.

“These portraits explore a different side to the traditional nightlife photography – which is often frivolous and light-hearted.”

Moss says she is excited to have the support of council to be able to share her debut exhibition with the public.

Artists also exhibiting work during the Queer Pavilion project include; Ary Jansen, Daniel John Corbett Sanders, Forest V kapo, Jaimee Stockman-Young, Layne Waerea Mahonri and Hobbs, Megha Pashe Akshon, Micheal McCabe, Richard Orjis, Sione Monu, Val Smith, Whaea and The Rumble.

Image top: Lady Shaka is one of the faces appearing on a lightbox during the Queer Portraits of Auckland exhibition and image above: A miniature mock-up of one of the drifting Queer Pavilion stages.