Hot & cold

The work of David McDiarmid traverses the complex and overlapping histories of art, fashion, craft, gay liberation, music, sex, and identity politics. McDiarmid was an interdisciplinary artist who played a pivotal role in shaping Australian visual culture in the 1980s and 1990s. He was a dedicated gay liberation activist, and his personal politics were intertwined with his art. His work explored and celebrated his own sexual identity while scrutinising the stigmatisation of homosexuality.

‘Hot & cold’ is a collage made by David McDiarmid in the early 1990s. With insignia derived from the door of a male public restroom appearing alongside a torn street poster of a topless man wearing a bathroom tap on a chain as a necklace, this work evokes gay male cruising culture and the language of covert signs and symbols it relies on. The poster was for a Belvoir Street Theatre production of ‘Blue Murder’ by Beatrix Christian and depicts actor Jacek Koman.