Playtime with bent art

Returning to Sydney after a three-year exile in a small country town, Sam King found herself surrounded by starving artists who had nowhere to show.

But by converting the upstairs bar at the Newtown Hotel into a gallery space called The Playground, King hopes to introduce queer and bent artists.

They’re great artists, but they’re not getting their work out there, so let’s create some chaos, she says.

King says the gallery space, with its mix of Timezone and dungeon aesthetics, helped define the first exhibition that includes tattoo design, body painting, self portraits and bondage photography.

After working for the National Gallery of Australia in the rarefied art world, it’s actually about putting fun back into art for me, she says.

Art’s meant to be fun. So when I do shoots, I try to get other artists to come play. Let’s do something really silly.

King says the space’s fixed picture frames -“ which formerly featured dodgy black and white photographed posters of leather boys in San Francisco -“ gave her an idea.

A lot of artists can’t afford framing. So those who can’t afford to rig 30 bloody paintings can actually just come in, open the frames and go.

Jordan Ford, one of the artists in the first collection, says the pool of starving bent artists is bottomless.

With this you can do it with an existing venue with an existing clientele who are predominantly interested in this kind of thing -“ the clientele at Newtown are quite art conscious.

Being a straight woman hasn’t dampened Ford’s appeal in Newtown.

Look at her work, King says. She’s got pink fluffy slippers on, shaving her legs in a fluorescent pink bathroom smoking a fag with an enormous pink dildo in the background. She looks like a fucking drag queen.

King has no doubt Sydney’s queer and bent community can keep the gallery space well stocked.

Darling, we’re creative people by nature. It takes half the people I know 42 hours to make their outfit each weekend. We think in colour and visuals. It’s fucking genetic.

Every six weeks we’ll put up a new collection. The next exhibition is going to be pop art-themed and berserk.

If you’ve got some art and want to show, give me a call. I’m not an art theorist -“ I’m a dodgy photographer. Hand puppets, whatever.

The Playground resides upstairs at the Newtown Hotel. Artists wishing to submit their work should contact Sam King on 0413 206 847.