Ren Gregorčič - 'mechanical, material'

The exhibition contains a number of drawings by the artist as well as a sculptural sound work that, together, reflects his experience of being a being a queer, second-generation Australian of Slovene heritage.

Disparate elements of treasured but often highly emotive, partially-told cultural identity, practices, myths and fractured stories passed down from his paternal Slovenian family, including their war experiences as well as migration and internment at Victoria’s Bonegilla Migrant Camp on the Hume Lake near Albury-Wodogona in the 1950s, are interwoven with the artist’s queer identity; they are inseparable but also at tension. In a 2012 referendum, Slovenia rejected granting more rights to gay couples and in 2015 rejected same-sex marriage by a large margin. mechanical, material is an expression of the tensions that exists for the artist between story, myth, sexuality, politics and cultural understanding.