Art, drag and shopping

The Underbelly Public Arts Lab and Festival is a 10-day event of artist exposure, twilight shopping and matchless performances. This burgeoning fiesta will take up residency at CarriageWorks and hopes to add a splash of diversity to the already boiling Sydney art cauldron.

Over 200 artists from all walks of life will take part in this cultural encounter and the public have been invited to view and sample the sundry works.

As part of the Public Arts Lab, Fran Barrett, Kate Blackmore and Anastasia Zaravinos have joined forces to take cross-dressing to a different level with their contribution, Drag Act. The girls will be creating short performances throughout the event, which will be recorded on camera and then turned into a video work.

We won’t have a live show performed within the festival. Instead we will have the video work which will show all of our performative experimentation, Barrett told Sydney Star Observer.

I’m interested in the banality found in everyday dragging or the inversion of what is commonly perceived as drag. I’m also interested in mimicry and repetition within performance and creating a drag act through the medium of video.

Blackmore also added that drag is a great way to explore ideas of female sexuality, whether you’re straight or gay.

I think people assume that drag artists are gay but it’s not always the case -” I’m really interested in how through drag you can be gender- and sexually ambiguous, she said.

I don’t think we’re breaking any boundaries with our ideas on drag but I guess if you’re talking about traditional drag acts being those performed by males dressed as women, lip-synching to pop songs, we’re not exactly copying that mould.

If you want to check out the girls’ final piece, there will be a two-day ticketed event presenting all the different works on Saturday 12 July and Sunday 13 July.

info: For more details on tickets and schedules for the Underbelly Festival go to www.underbelly.com.au.