Polaroid Polaroid Polaroid: Group Exhibition
Current exhibition
Images
Overview
Opening event: Tuesday 23rd June, 6-8pm
View censored Polaroid catalogue
Emil Canita: Let Them Know: Why and How to Share Your HIV Story
MARS is delighted to present our group exhibition Polaroid Polaroid Polaroid. This exhibition aims to raise funds for Living Positive Australia (LPV) by bringing together a snapshot of the MARS community.
Inspired by Andy Warhol’s love of capturing the everyday with a Polaroid camera, this exhibition engages with the MARS community to utilise the Polaroid as a medium and object open to personal interpretation. Polaroids are and have been distinctly renowned as an accessible and playful medium of photography. Since its inception in 1948, Polaroids have been beloved by generations for the ability to capture moments with an instant keepsake print.
This exhibition was open to all, whether they be artists, curators, or art enthusiasts to be involved. Polaroids will be priced depending what you can afford, with MARS taking no commission on sales. Works are sold first in best dressed, so give generously for good art karma! All sales will help the important work at Living Positive Victoria.
We are delighted to be exhibting Polaroids by artists Kenny Pittock, The Huxleys, Chun Yin Rainbow Chan, Daniel Agdag, Diego Ramirez, Jenna Lee, Kyle Archie Knight and more!
To coincide with the Polaroid Polaroid Polaroid display, artist Emil Canita’s series Let Them Know: Why and How to Share Your HIV Story will be featured alongside the works.
Let Them Know: Why and How to Share Your HIV Story was developed in response to a long-standing gap in how HIV disclosure is supported in Australia and globally.
The series grew out of peer-led HIV disclosure workshops that began during COVID-19, a period of heightened isolation and uncertainty. Shot in domestic, intimate, and everyday settings, the images foreground moments of closeness, trust, and vulnerability rather than spectacle or disclosure as an event. The people pictured come from diverse cultural backgrounds and life experiences, reflecting the multicultural reality of people living with HIV in Australia today. Each image is paired with a verbatim quote drawn from the participant’s own story. The works presented here form part of a national poster campaign distributed through clinics and community organisations across Australia.
Living Positive Victoria is a not for profit, community-based organisation representing all people living with HIV in Victoria since 1988 and is committed to the advancement of human rights and wellbeing of all people living with HIV. In response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, Living Positive Victoria was created as a safe place to provide support and advocate those living with virus.
Exhibition donations will directly support people living with HIV, as well as fund programs to help them connect with the community. The community sector lost 25-30% of its funding because of Victoria’s “COVID overspend”.