Anita Cummins is a white, neurodivergent, non-binary and queer interdisciplinary visual artist living on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri people in Naarm (Melbourne). In 2018 they received the Les Kossatz Memorial Award for their Honours graduate showcase. This led to their inclusion in the national graduate showcase Hatched at Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, for which they were awarded the Schenberg Art Fellowship 2019. They are currently completing a Master of Fine Art by research at Monash University. In response to personal emotional, physical and psychic experiences, and the wider systems to which these experiences relate, their work aims to seek out and uncover alternative modes, methods and visualisations of radical coping, healing and recovery. They employ the use of arduous and repetitive methodologies as a mechanism for the processing and exploration of these complex states. Previous exhibitions include Stimulus Package, 2021, Darebin City Council FUSE Festival, feelings, Monash University, 2018, Airbnb guest, Sideshow, 2016, Living Lab of Beauty, Long Division, 2015 and Quick Copy, Bus Projects, 2013.
About this artwork
The first pride flag was created and flown in San Francisco in 1978. Since then, many coloured pride flags have been created, each flag signifying a specific spectrum of gender or sexuality to mark and celebrate such communities. PROUD interlinks twenty pride flags, in celebration and acknowledgement of the interconnected strength, vulnerability and resilience of these communities. Huge retail conglomerates co-opt and sell rainbow merchandise based on our symbols of power, flattening our nuanced experiences into their pinkwashed profit-margins. PROUD rejects attempts to simplify and monetise LGBTQIA+ identities, instead opting for a more-is-more approach that creates space for expansion.
In order of appearance (left to right) The Philadelphia People of Colour Inclusive Pride flag, Bisexual flag, Pansexual flag, Asexual flag, Aromantic flag, Intersex flag, Transgender flag, Polyamory flag, Genderfluid flag, Genderqueer flag, Polysexual flag, Non-Binary flag, Bear Brotherhood flag, Lipstick Lesbian flag, Pony flag, Labrys Lesbian flag, Rubber flag, Agender flag and the Leather, Latex and BDSM flag.
