Kate Just, A Sign of the Times: A knitted translation of David McDiarmid, Rainbow Aphorisms: I Want a Future That Lives Up to My Past, 1994, installed in Clapham, UK in 2018 (2026)
Hand knitted acrylic yarn, timber, canvas
71 x 67 x 2.5cm

David McDiarmid (1952–1995) was an Australian artist, designer and political activist, recognised for his prominent and sustained artistic engagement with gay life, queer community and HIV/AIDS. He lived and worked in Hobart, Melbourne and Sydney and then New York from 1979 to 1987. He was well known for his involvement in the gay liberation movement of the early 1970s, and his artistic direction of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. McDiarmid’s practice was prolific and wide-ranging encompassing collage, print, textiles, mosaic, installation, sculpture and books.

This knitted picture references McDiarmid’s famous series Rainbow Aphorisms, 1994, a text-based print series McDiarmid produced from 1993 until his death of AIDS-related conditions in May 1995. The work expressed the devastating effects of the AIDS crisis and community pride and resistance. Rainbow Aphorism texts included: ‘Honey, Have You Got It?’ ‘When I Want Your Opinion I’ll Give it To You’, ‘Darling You Make Me Sick’ and ‘That’s Miss Poofter To You Asshole’. In 2018, Studio Voltaire re-printed and presented the series for a year across various sites in London, Clapham and Brixton, UK.

My knitted homage to ‘I Want A Future That Lives Up to My Past, 1994’ captures the work’s 2018 installation on the façade of the LGBTQ+ venue Two Brewers in Clapham. McDiarmid’s work still calls on us to remember the dead, fight for the living, and continue our commitment to queer equality. In a Trump-era world, in which trans rights are being targeted and further threatened, McDiarmid’s message reflects a call to action and a reflection of the power of queer agency, love, resilience and resistance.