Following on from an earlier body of work titled Within the nook, Liam Benson’s current exhibition Verdure delves deeply into the artist’s personal journey, chronicling experiences of isolation and self-discovery as a queer individual. The artworks capture the artist’s adolescence, where processing queer identity in isolation from the community led to a profound connection with nature. These experiences, once painful, are now appreciated as valuable life lessons that enriched the artist’s queer experience and community connection.

Nature’s unbiased, intrinsic responses within ecosystems serve as a model for understanding and processing personal experiences and emotions. This exhibition underscores the importance of reciprocal exchanges in both human relationships and natural ecosystems to maintain holistic health. It highlights both spoken and unspoken, direct and subtle exchanges.

Benson’s process with materials reflects how queer communities build and sustain connections, akin to natural processes of growth and renewal. The embroideries and paintings serve as an archive of personal and natural experiences, documenting the interaction and influence between these realms.

Inspired by queer cultural costumes such as those seen in drag, nightlife, and festivals, the exhibition features works that explore the interplay between natural environments and queer cultural exchanges. It emphasizes the similarities between semi-biotic relationships in nature and the cultural dynamics within the queer experience.

Liam Benson’s methods, materials, shapes, and designs draw from early learnings and skills passed down from a grandmother and mother deeply rooted in Scottish culture and a love of making. This influence is evident in works like the ‘sporran’ embroideries, referencing the pouches worn with kilts in ceremonial Scottish regalia, made from natural materials that connect wearers to their environment and the animals, both physically and metaphorically (using materials such as seal fur, horse hair, fox fur, leather, rabbit fur, etc.).

The exhibition also explores the resourceful reinterpretation of accessible materials through traditional methods of making, creating tactile, wearable, and performative art. Beads and sequins, in particular, are highlighted for their ability to play with light, enhancing and transforming it. This reflects the natural and queer ability to utilize and transform available resources and energy, celebrating the intricate and diverse ways these exchanges manifest into something new.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Liam Benson is a celebrated Australian artist known for his intricate, diaphanous and finely spun embroideries which range in size from the minute to larger than life. Earlier in his artistic practice, Liam’s work spanned photography, video and performance. Most recently, Liam has picked up a paintbrush and created his first body of paintings.

The exquisite embroideries shown in this exhibition are a continuation on from a recent body of large-scale embroidered artworks made for You Already Know, a solo exhibition presented by Glasshouse Regional Gallery in Port Macquarie in early 2022. This current exhibition also follows on from another major milestone within the artist’s career, a retrospective exhibition titled Virtue without Stain showcasing over two decades of Benson’s works which opened at Bathurst Regional Gallery in 2022 before touring.

Liam Benson has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Arts Category of the Champions of the West Initiative (2014), Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Award (2013), the Hawkesbury Art Prize (2013), the Hazelhurst Art on Paper Award (2011), and the Contemporary Award category of the Fishers Ghost Art Award (2011).

In 2019, Benson was commissioned to complete the prestigious Bella Room commission at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia.

Liam Benson’s works are held in significant public and private collections including those of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Artbank, the Art Gallery of South Australia, the University of Western Sydney, Bathurst Regional Art Gallery and the Gold Coast City Gallery.

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