A Photo Review! SMUT is an uncensored insight into the artistic practices of Dylan Kelleher, J Davies, and Karlo Martinez. It is not only a reclamation of the derogatory, but also a revolt against society’s ongoing censorship of queer bodies and sexuality.
Exhibition location: Oigåll Projects
122 Gertrude St, Fitzroy @oigall_projects www.oigallprojects.com
Through collaborative and individual exploration, Dylan, J, and Karlo (a.k.a. the “SMUT Collective”) have established a cohesive study of contemporary homoeroticism, queer intimacy, and aesthetics. Utilising various photographic processes, the artists playfully investigate themes of voyeurism and exhibitionism—seeing and being seen—and often incorporate themselves into their work, subverting the role of the audience and offering personal narratives within their individual practices.
SMUT, their first collaborative exhibition, functioned as a space for rebellious queer voices and visions to echo loudly, shamelessly, and unapologetically.
The Smut Collective consists of:
Dylan Kelleher (Photographer)
“My photography is in constant evolution of self through time and currently stands as an exploration of sexuality and body empowerment. I aim to portray an alluring and unapologetic portrait of my life and fascinations in a beautifully sexual and non-sexual dichotomy.”
Dylan Kelleher (b. 1988) is a designer-cum- photographer based in Melbourne, Naarm, and has an education in interior design and architecture. His creativity and love for photography stems from an early age through eager photographic documentation.
Graduating from a Masters of Architecture in 2015, Kelleher explores design through his photography. Understanding and playing with space (and
time), light and shadow has been pivotal in his developmental process.
Kelleher’s photography often features the naked body, merging ideas of sexual desire, voyeurism and homoeroticism with ‘impure’, in-your-face, content.
Through exploration of his own sexuality, Kelleher’s thirst to document becomes more direct and resolute, with an added polish and a calmness to his work.
@dylankelleher88 www.dylankelleher.com
J Davies (Photographer)
“My voice as an artist is constantly being censored and diluted so that it is palatable, so that my queerness is soft enough for society to swallow. My art is an extension of myself, my identity and my existence and should not need to be innocuous in order for it to be accepted or valid.”
J Davies (b. 1994) is a queer, agender, First Nations (Maori) photographic artist living and working on stolen lands of the Kulin Nation (in Melbourne, Australia).
J graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree of Fine
Art (Photography) from the Victorian College
of The Arts in 2018 and has been exploring and experimenting with photography since 2008. Their work explores queer intimacy for a queer audience. Through the use of analog and instant photographic processes, they are developing a body of work that highlights and celebrates the importance of queer life and community. Creating this work relies on the development of safe spaces and intimate relationships between artist and subject, which has shaped J’s practice into one of empathy and collaboration.
@jdavies.studio www.jay-davies.com
Karlo Martinez (Collage Artist)
“My compositions depict a stylized, tongue-in- cheek, sticking-my-tongue-out-at-society view of my sexuality.”
Karlo Martinez (b. 1989) is a Melbourne-based collage artist working with mixed media. Born
and raised in Monterrey, Mexico, he relocated to Australia in 2011 to pursue a career in architecture and explore his sexuality away from a catholic upbringing and hometown scrutiny. In Melbourne, alongside his studies and work in architecture, a tumultuous path in sexual discovery led to artistic experimentation, culminating in collage at the start of 2019.
Blending homoerotic self-portraiture and appropriations with a restrained architectural sensibility, Martinez’s work encompasses a collection of stories and erotic fantasies, as portrayed through an ‘oversexualised alter ego’. In doing so, his work highlights the internal conflict between the pursuit of his own artistic interests and an ingrained responsibility towards a conventional lifestyle. Unabashed, Martinez fully owns his body and desires through his artwork.
