By Jasmin Asifiwe
A new exhibition by the QUT Art Museum invites students to see the university’s art collection through a lens that foregrounds queer identities and perspectives in a process of reinterpretation. Queer Readings of the QUT Art Collection brings together a host of multi-award-winning writers and QUT alumni, each invited to respond to five selected artworks from the university’s collection through poetry and prose.
Artworks that might otherwise fade into the background are pulled forward. Each writer beautifully interprets construes the artwork, drawing the attention of current students to artwork from decades past.
The project forms part of a QUT pilot initiative to support projects that address equity and diversity in a way that delivers substantial benefit to the QUT community.
Scott Redford’s 2002 work Spiritual Australia is paired with poetry by Jarad Bruinstroop, whose response lingers on questions of belonging, and what it is to be on the outside looking in. It endeavours to expose the haunting stare that Redford’s model gives.
It’s in pieces like Anna Jacobson’s Solar System where the meaning behind the project feels most direct. Jacobsen writes, “I am bi, lesbian, straight, ace, pan, queer, gay. Woman, non-binary, trans man, non-binary woman, boy, girl. This solar system is fluid.” Jacobsen is unapologetically direct in this interpretation of Lincoln Austin’s 2008 steel mesh sculpture; the statement asserts that there is multiplicity in identity, and that sense of self can change depending on how and where you view it from.
Framed within a broader university initiative, the project risks feeling performative. However, its placement within the library shelves and in the everyday environment of students avoids this trap; the project does not demand attention but is woven into student life.
The exhibition reframes the QUT Art Collection as an evolving archive that continues to reflect the diversity of the community it serves. The pairings are thought-provoking: the writers captivatingly balance drawing out themes of queer identity without overwhelming the art itself. It broadens how audiences can challenge fixed readings of art by placing contemporary queer voices in dialogue with existing works.
The collection is currently on display on Level Five of the QUT Gardens Point Library until 30 December 2026.
