Embrace

What if the conditions for liberation are here, now, and all you have to do is embrace it with an open heart, and open arms?

The act of embracing is to hold and encircle another — reaching out to invite company and closeness into your space. An act that requires a mutual exchange of vulnerability. To be loved you must be open to being hurt.

How do we wade through the discomfort of vulnerability and break away from the cynical hisses of individualism? What will it take to embrace our intrinsic needs — to be folded into community, to be swayed by moments of everyday and fantastical intimacy? To realise the cost of closeness is worth it.

Moving beyond acceptance to embrace our most untamed desires, this show gathers artists who dare to yearn for something better. They explore a spectrum of bonds beyond friendships, romance and sexuality, underscored by a thirst to connect — with communities, places and cultures. These works acknowledge all relations depart from one’s own relationship to the self, our bodies; and that we are inextricably entangled with material culture and reality. The exhibition endeavours to challenge blueprints of relationships rooted in heteronormative, patriarchal and colonial power structures. Embrace celebrates unabashed self-expression, enriched by a multitude of intersectional identities — encompassing disabilities, pride and queer joy.

Coming together in a tight circle, we create space for our full selves to be embraced; in a hushed whisper into one another’s ears, we confide our desires to be loved, to belong, to be free.