Images and Artist Statement
by Faith Stellmaker
About the Artist
Faith Stellmaker is a student at the Australian National University working in both analog and digital photography. Her work explores the ways in which girls present themselves, and has been largely focused on adolescence and youth.Faith’s previous group exhibitions include VIEW2020 at Canberra’s Photoaccess and Everyone Looking at Everyone at the ANU School of Art Gallery Foyer.
Instagram: faith_stellmaker
Portfolio: faithstellmaker.format.com
Pussy Party by Faith Stellmaker
2019, Inkjet Print
Artist’s Statement
The LGBTQ community in Indonesia is heavily oppressed and not widely accepted in society. As a result, those whose sexual identities don’t align with what is considered ‘normal’ become marginalised. In Yogyakarta on the island of Java, the LGBTQ community holds many undercover events or meetings to create a space where like-minded youth can gather. In 2019, an underground Pussy Party was held in a simple building where a DJ played and one could drink or dance. It became a space where young LGTBQ-identifying Indonesians could be open about their sexual identity and relax. The event was hard to organise, but well-executed, and at the back of the hall hand-printed feminist zines were sold by local art students from the ISI (Indonesian Institute of the Arts, Yogyakarta). Events like this don’t occur often, but when they do, a community is able to come together that is normally confined to the peripherals of society.