Chapter: Disco
Disco unfolds as a story, with each artwork revealing another part of the narrative.
Built from secrets and objects found around my home, recurring motifs travel from one entry to the next, changing meaning as the story develops. At its heart is a love story, pieced together through disco balls, familiar objects and details that may only make sense later.
With every turn of the page, another clue is revealed.
BEYOND THE DRAWINGS
Disco has a habit of escaping the frame.
DIARY ENTRIES
An ever-growing story told beneath the lights.
Latest entries:
Dear Diary,
I live in a little town in regional Queensland, where even Brisbane can feel far away. When something wonderful opens at GOMA, I usually experience it through the small screen in my hand. And Paris? London? The Louvre? They exist somewhere between a plan and a daydream.
I was supposed to go once. My honeymoon to Paris and London were booked, and then COVID happened. And then life happened.
The lady in red is me. Or perhaps the fantasy version of me.
Overdressed. Red heels on. Completely ready to go.
She’s climbed onto a classical bust I originally arranged as a still life in my studio and is desperately trying to absorb whatever culture she can get her hands on. If she can’t get to David, apparently she’ll just climb him.
We spend so much of our lives waiting for the thing we’ve imagined. The trip. The opportunity. The change. The moment when everything finally lines up.
But life is happening in the meantime.
So she’ll keep getting dressed. Keep climbing. Keep looking.
And when the moment finally arrives, she’ll be ready.
Love
Shanay x
Dear Diary,
I took this self-portrait alone in my studio, holding a disco ball as though it were a wishing ball and imagining a future where my wish had come true.
The disco ball became a symbol of a joy I had not lived yet. Something hopeful, glamorous and still just out of reach.
Love,
Shanay x
The Archive:
