Ben Apfelbaum

40 YEARS OF LOVE : ART INSTALLATION @ TAYLOR SQUARE

On Sunday 24th June 2018, a date which marked the historic 40th anniversary of the first ever Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, a vibrant inflatable art installation in the heart of Sydney’s LGBTQI district, Taylor Square.

Designed by Maurice Goldberg and Matthew Aberline, 40 YEARS OF LOVE uses symbols to represent the five themes of repression, adversity, freedom, diversity and love. It further represents historic Mardi gras concepts such as public protest, joyous celebration, community activation and engagement and incorporates many colours and shapes to express that Mardi Gras is not a singular concept but a mixture of diverse ideas, people, histories, politics and expressions.

“The sculpture is nine metres high at the highest point above the ground”, Goldberg stated, ‘That’s higher than a three storey building. We want people to notice this- it’s a big, sassy, loud, undeniably in your face installation.”

Despite its popularity this powerful and poignant installation will be dismantled on the 1st September.

One would hope that a more permanent sculpture modelled on the inflatable one would be installed in the not too distant future.

Pics by Ben Apfelbaum.

 

Published by Ben Apfelbaum

My photography began when my father handed me the proverbial brownie box camera as a child. As cameras developed I went through Fujica and Olympus range finders graduating to my first single lens reflex camera, the Minolta SRT101, the latter being the greatest facilitator to my growth as a photographer. Digital photography has only added to this. I was a regular contributor to Camera Craft magazine (Australian Camera ) for over three years. During Australia’s Bicentennial year (1988) I made it a personal project to document the celebrations. This culminated in the creation of a book of my photos which was published in 1989. The book was called CELEBRATING AUSTRALIA and came with an accompanying calendar. My works have appeared in a number of publications including the coffee book entitled MY AUSTRALIA (1989), publisher Robertsbridge Severn. This book had a preface by the then Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke. I was a co-photographer on a book entitled SYDNEY- DISCOVER THE CITY with text written by Robert Treborlang. Major Mitchell Press was the publisher. Also for two years I was the photographer for calendars celebrating Sydney’s multicultural communities. The two calendars were entitled MULTICULTURAL SYDNEY. My work appeared in a group exhibition held at Sydney’s Town Hall pertaining to the diversity of life in South America to raise money for orphanages there. I have over one hundred photos stored in the New South Wales State Library archive. I had a solo exhibition held in 2007 entitled Ben’s Lens at the Sydney Jewish Museum which celebrated the vibrancy of the Sydney Jewish community. Some of these photos are on the Museum’s permanent display. I have exhibited internationally firstly at the Spruill Gallery in Atlanta Georgia, United States, and in an exhibition entitled Kosher and Co at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Currently I am a regular contributor to J-Wire and this esteemed publication. To celebrate the opening of a permanent Photography Gallery, the State Library of New South Wales selected 400 shots from its archive of over 2,000,000 images to display in the new gallery. An image of mine was plucked out of the multi million photo archive to be part of the inaugural exhibition.