MAPh | Untitled (Moonlite)Untitled (Nesbitt)Untitled (Andrew)Untitled (James)

Untitled (Moonlite)
Untitled (Nesbitt)
Untitled (Andrew)
Untitled (James)

2023

from the series Forget me not: a queer end to the bushrangers

chromogenic prints, 18 carat gold, bronze, steel plinth

60.0 x 40.0 cm (each); 1.9 cm (diameter each); 80.0 x 30.0 x 30.0 cm

courtesy of the artist and Sarah Scout Presents (Melbourne)

Artist statement: This photographic installation unearths the under-represented queer narrative of the bushranger Captain Moonlite. For this project I worked with a range of museums and libraries, including the Australian Queer Archives, New South Wales State Archives, and the Public Record Office Victoria (PROV). ‘Untitled (Moonlite)’ and ‘Untitled (Nesbitt)’ capture excerpts of the Pentridge Prison records of Moonlite and his partner, James Nesbitt, from the PROV archives. The two met at Pentridge and developed a close bond, but they met untimely deaths when Nesbitt was killed in a shoot-out with police (1879) and Moonlite was executed shortly thereafter, wearing a ring of Nesbitt’s hair around his finger. ‘Untitled (Andrew)’ and ‘Untitled (James)’ are cast from the artist’s partner’s hair and installed in a hooded plinth directly under the photographs.

drewpettifer.com

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