Take a stroll through our Australian Love Stories exhibition and explore love in all its guises with Will Huxley and Garrett Huxley.
- [Garrett] Was that? This is our room?
- Yeah, that's outside and to come our way in this exhibition.
- It's all lit in the forest.
- Yeah, it's so big. Seeing the video, it was scaled away. Like working on it, editing it, I haven't really seen it. It's such a nice one, yeah.
- [Garrett] You can see all the details now.
- Yeah. I love how the portraits have the gold, that rim.
- It's such an odd find.
- Yeah, it really suits all the style of the postcards themselves.
- In fact, the string matches up beautifully.
- Did you ever imagine that you would be hanging in the National Portrait Gallery?
- No.
- It's a real honour to be part of all the other stories in the show, and then be part of it is really special. It's great, it's great. I like this one from David and Wesley. I actually didn't know that they worked together.
- No, well, it says they just spent 10 years living in different locations.
- It's got a really nice sort of '70s colour palette, the browns and yellows.
- Reminds me of single mime movie.
- Yeah, it's quite like a Tom Ford Gucci kinda vibe.
- And the ice bucket is my favourite view.
- [Will] It's very sweet how they're holding hands.
- Yeah, it's a beautiful photograph. Kinda cool with their name on.
- Yeah.
- You can see the lights when we're driving into, right?
- Yeah.
- Yup.
- I love neon light at any time.
- I love these.
- I'd train with Sam Neill when I go again. So great. Sam Neill was quite hot. He probably still is. Yeah, it seems.
- Can't remember him.
- "Jurassic Park".
- Oh, yeah, that was Sam Neill. I actually likes him, good. I don't know.
- I like the contrast of the domestic life and then they have fantasies, yeah, yeah.
- Fantasy. Look how colourful their faces in the fantasies are.
- Yeah, I'd much prefer the fantasy than the reality.
- It looks really stressed.
- Yeah, stressful feeding a child, dreaming of Sam Neill. It's really great. I like that pattern, that love is obviously just a fantasy.
- Yeah. I think these are my favourite in the whole exhibition. I love "Lottie & John".
- It's so beautiful. They had that fake wedding. This is their fake wedding here, isn't it?
- Yeah.
- Would have been nice for them to see same sex marriage become legal. I'm so glad that they just did-
- They just went out and did that anyway.
- [Will] This looks like a really fun wedding to be at.
- Stunning, I'd love one.
- I wanna be at that wedding. It's very beautiful. Oh, "Kath & Kim".
- I think "Kath & Kim" is like they're fictional characters, but I feel like I grew up pretty much close to where they, you know that whole environment?
- Yeah, this says, "My first impressions "of Jeannie were not good. "I didn't like her very much."
- Really?
- I always think it's quick to go in, and judge fast, and then be good at that. Then you can always say, "Oh, I was wrong, and you're great."
- It's better than the other way around.
- And it's interesting fact, we work together, and then working together, and being friends, and having that relationship, how long do you think? We have get along now. It's so iconic. That dress is so ugly. It's perfect. I could see your mom right now.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, very much, yeah. Mommy love.
- [Will] This one's fantastic.
- Yeah, that's the one we saw driving in.
- Yeah, when you drive past, you can see it. So cool. This will look good in our room. It won't fit though. It's beautiful. I like all the colours with the gallery.
- Yeah, not just white walls. It's beautiful.
- Yeah. It's William Yang.
- Oh, great, I love his work.
- "I never consciously came out as a gay man. "I was swept out by events at the time." His work is so important documenting queer stories wherever he is.
- [Garrett] Yes.
- Yeah, that archive is so important.
- Yeah.
- And it's so intimate in the way that he is part of those worlds, and he gets right inside, and just captures people's lives. I love how William Yang writes on his photographs. It just gives them that extra personal language. You can connect with the people's stories with their names, and it's more, yeah. This is the photograph that our first one that we were in.
- Yeah.
- It was the 40th anniversary of Mardi Gras.
- I see, this was the well, it was like a history.
- A salute to iconic costumes from Mardi Gras's past.
- And we were the future.
- Yeah, we wore those ridiculous golden fly nipples and we could only move our feet a tiny bit.
- It's horrible, really bad decision.
- It's really cool. It was so painful, but I was so excited to be there that I just didn't even think about it.
- Yeah.
- I was like, "This is amazing, this is where I meant to be."
- I couldn't see a thing.
- It's Peter Allen. Remember my mom thought you went to school with Peter Allen?
- Yeah.
- It was actually Peter Andre.
- I know.
- She didn't know that.
- I'd be 80 by now.
- She thought that you might be a bit younger than that. Would've been great to meet him. Wow, now, this is stunning. They just pop right off the wall, it's so amazing.
- You know William Yang photograph?
- Yeah, he's...
- Document the fashion parade?
- Yeah, he was at, what I think, the Flamingo Park.
- [Will] That's such incredible women, and these portraits really capture them, like they are literally this vibrant, beautiful, world of colour. I've admired them for so long.
- Even though they're so separate, you can feel the love between them. There is a connection.
- What I love is that friendship is seen as a love story, and sometimes your friends are the people you love the most in the world.
- Yeah. Check out the patterns, I didn't see that.
- Wow.
- They've got very...
- This is cool.
- I think we should make bedspreads and kimonos.
- Yeah. This one reminds me of that Freda Conway. You know, double entree?
- Yeah.
- [Will] Apparently, they got married three times.
- [Garrett] Three times?
- Yeah, 'cause they got married in New York, and then they went back when it was illegal, I mean, when it was legalised.
- Yeah.
- And then they came to Australia and got married again, same sex marriage.
- Oh, right.
- Why'd you think one wedding won't be enough?
- Well. Imagine doing three, it's-
- It's so nice that they were able to do it in Australia.
- [Garrett] Yeah.
- I love that the exhibition is about queer love stories.
- Yeah.
- We wouldn't be in it otherwise.
- No, no, no, can't. I like how the watch doesn't have anything on it. What do they want?
- Actually great invested in historics, isn't that cool?
- Yeah.
- And I like all the mixture, mediums having paintings and photographs. Maybe I'll vid again?
- [Garrett] Yeah.
- [Will] Imagine now, people having to hear our video all day long.
- [Garrett] I am passing these.