Ivan NUNN
BIO
Born Brisbane 1962, Artist, Photographer. Active participant in 1980’s Brisbane artist-runs including The Observatory Gallery.
Ivan Nunn’s photos of Brisbane Pride 1990
2020 marks the 30th anniversary of Brisbane’s first Pride celebration, Brisbane Pride 1990. Ivan Nunn was there that day with his camera.
Ivan snapped unforgettable images of the day Brisbane’s LGBTIQ communities burst defiantly from their closets, never to return.
Back in June 1990, male homosexual sex acts remained illegal in Queensland. However, with the recent demise of Joh Bjelke-Petersen as Premier and the election of the Goss Labor Government, Brisbane’s LGBTIQ community felt on the cusp of momentous change.
https://qnews.com.au/ivan-nunns-photos-of-brisbane-pride-1990
Contextual Notes:
Excerpt from the 2016 catalogue essay Ephemeral Traces – Brisbane’s Artist-Run Scene in the 1980s, by Peter Anderson
“The Observatory was established in August 1985 by three artists, Robyn Gray, Lehan Ramsay and Anna Zsoldos, whose primary interest was contemporary photographic practice. Located in a small warehouse at 92–102 Little Roma Street, The Observatory included a gallery space and darkroom. The space was sublet from Anna Burke, whose fashion studio Atomic Workshop was also in the building, as was the rehearsal studio of the ZIP performing group. Artists exhibiting at The Observatory included collective members and Ivan Nunn, Vincent Long, Marian Drew, Jay Younger, David Gofton, Joanna Greenwood and Margaret Rol. In February 1986, The Observatory presented Suspending belief, a group exhibition of Sydney photographers (Geoff Kleem, Jacky Redgate, Robyn Stacey and Anne Zahalka), and developed an exhibition of Brisbane photographers, Occlusion, that toured to the Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney, and then to THAT Space in December 1986. The Observatory was the focus of The Demolition Show (curated by John Stafford), which marked the demolition of the large city block bounded by George, Turbot, and Roma Streets in April 1986. The exhibited works were left in situ to be destroyed with the building. Of all the spaces, the short-lived Observatory has left the least archival trace, with few records or documentation available. In the end, it is the materials produced around the demise of the space in the context of The Demolition Show that offer the most tangible record of this space.”
https://issuu.com/uqartmuseum/docs/ephemeral_traces_catalogue_essay_fi
Art Practice Keywords:
Artist, Photography
Artist Role Keywords:
Photographer
Collaboration/ Collaborator names Keywords:
Black Banana Poster Collective, Occlusion, The Observatory
Collections
Various Private Collections