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Intimate Encounters 2005 - 2007
Accessible Arts assistance with the 2004-2007 national tour of Belinda Mason-Lovering's Intimate Encounters photographic exhibition has now come to an end. The exhibition toured nationally with the support of the Australian Government, through the Visions of Australia program, and Accessible Arts. Intimate Encounters - Disability and Sexuality features images and essays by 40 people who collaborated with photographer Belinda Mason-Lovering to express their desires, needs, love and affection reflecting the diversity of their experiences of disability through the lens.
The exhibition was seen in Sydney, Melbourne and through regional Victoria, the Northern Territory and Western Australia and will be touring internationally. Media and audience reactions have been varied and not without some controversy. The exhibition was seen in Sydney, Melbourne and through regional Victoria, the Northern Territory and Western Australia and will be touring internationally. Media and audience reactions have been varied and not without some controversy.
In Darwin the exhibition was to show in the Northern Territory Parliament House but it was decided that the exhibition space was not appropriate and the show was mounted in a commercial gallery space. This made headlines in the Darwin press Disabled Nude Pictures banned by Parliament which was not at all accurate but nonetheless sparked a media frenzy which encouraged many people to see the show that may not otherwise have known about it. Audiences flocked to see the show around Australia. Reaction has ranged across the spectrum with some people horrified and confronted by nudity and the display of disability but with the vast majority finding the show eye opening, inspirational and beautiful in its honest representation of human sexuality.