Reflections on David McDiarmid: Paul Yore and Sally Gray
Lighting of the Sails Artist Talk
26 May 2025
In the Utzon Room
Talks and Ideas
Free event, registrations essential.
Join curator, historian, and executor of the David McDiarmid estate, Dr. Sally Gray, in conversation with artist Paul Yore, to celebrate the launch of McDiarmid’s Lighting of the Sails commission, Kiss of Light.
| Date | Time |
| Monday 26 May 2025 | 7pm |
Ticket | Price |
|---|---|
| Standard | Free |
The only authorised ticket agency for this event is Sydney Opera House. For more information about Authorised Agencies, see the frequently asked questions below.
Register your interest
9am, Tuesday 29 April 2025
Run time
The total duration of this event is approximately 70 minutes. This includes a 60 minute conversation between the artists followed by a 10 minute moderated audience Q&A.
Event duration is a guide only and may be subject to change.
Age
Suitable for all ages.
Children aged 15 years and under must be accompanied at all times.
The Opera House is committed to the safety and wellbeing of children that visit or engage with us. Read our Child Safety Policy.
Understanding McDiarmid
Thirty years after his death, David McDiarmid is considered one of Australia's defining countercultural figures of the late twentieth century. Moving fluidly across poetry, provocation, nightlife, and protest, McDiarmid’s art fused art and fashion with activism and unapologetic self-expression.
In an intimate conversation in the Utzon Room, artist Paul Yore and curator Dr. Sally Gray reflect on McDiarmid's enduring legacy and his profound impact on generations of artists. Centring themes of hope, identity, and the transformative potential of creativity, Paul and Sally unpack how McDiarmid's vision continues to resonate, inspiring new dialogues around liberation, community, and selfhood.
Lighting of the Sails: Kiss of Light is commissioned by Sydney Opera House and Destination NSW for Vivid Sydney 2025
Paul YoreDavid’s dazzling work and fearless life continue to have a profound influence on my thinking as an artist and as a person. His inventive approaches to unorthodox materials and techniques, commitment to social justice, and uncompromising centring of gay experience place him high in the pantheon of heroic queer predecessors.
About the speakers
Paul Yore
Paul Yore is one of Australia’s most iconic and consequential multidisciplinary artists. Born in Naarm/Melbourne in 1987, he lives and works on Gunaikurnai Country in Gippsland, Victoria, and completed his studies in painting, archaeology and anthropology in 2010. Yore’s intricately crafted assemblage and textile works engage with spirituality, ritual, queer identity, and pop-culture, recasting a vast array of found images, materials and forms into highly decorative tableaux. Yore believes art is an important vehicle for discourse and contemplation, celebrating hybridity, fluid identities, contradictory meanings, and the glowing horizon of human potential.
Dr. Sally Gray
Dr. Sally Gray was a friend and intellectual fellow-traveller of artist David McDiarmid for twenty years preceding his untimely death of AIDS related conditions in 1995. Since then, she has been his executor, copyright holder and the curator of his creative legacy. She was Guest Curator of the retrospect exhibition David McDiarmid: When This You See Remember Me at the National Gallery of Victoria in 2014 and brokered the presentation of McDiarmid’s ‘Rainbow Aphorisms’ throughout the London Underground transport system in 2017. As an interdisciplinary curator, her exhibitions have been presented in Sydney, London, Melbourne, Beijing, and regional Australia. Her writing on art and design appears in books, book chapters and academic journals.
23 May – 14 June 2025
Lighting of the Sails: Kiss of Light by David McDiarmid
A defining voice of late 20th century radical counterculture, David McDiarmid fused art, fashion, nightlife with bold activism and unapologetic self-expression. Pulsing with energy, and the spirit of the underground, Kiss of Light celebrates David McDiarmid’s specific alchemy of lust, rage and hope.
Gallery
Gallery
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Plan your visit
Venue information
Our foyers will be open 90 minutes pre-show for Concert Hall and Joan Sutherland Theatre performances, and two hours pre-show for Western Foyer venue performances. Refreshments will be available for purchase from our theatre bars.
All Sydney Opera House foyers are pram accessible, with lifts to the main and western foyers. The public lift to all foyers is accessible from the corridor near the escalators on the Lower Concourse and also in the Western Foyer via the corridor on the Ground Level (at the top of the escalators). Pram parking will be available outside the theatres in the Western Foyer.
Getting here
Visitors and ticketholders are strongly encouraged to plan ahead and allow extra travel time and use public transport whenever possible when arriving for an event or performance. Large crowds are expected on the Opera House precinct and around the CBD, and road closures may be in place.
For further information, please visit Transport NSW’s Vivid Sydney page.
The Sydney Opera House and Circular Quay precincts are very popular and attract large crowds during Vivid Sydney. Visitors are strongly encouraged to leave the car at home and use public transport wherever possible. During this time, there will be changes to transport timetables so allow extra travel time.
Visit Transport NSW’s Vivid Sydney page for more details on service changes
There will be a range of road closures in the Sydney CBD during Vivid Sydney. For detailed information on road closures during Vivid Sydney, please visit Live Traffic NSW.
The Sydney Opera House car park will be open every evening during Vivid Sydney, however it is expected to reach capacity early. Patrons are encouraged to use public transport wherever possible and allow extra travel time.
Please note that if you drive and arrive early for parking, you may not be able to exit if there are road closures in place.
For detailed information on road closures during Vivid Sydney, please visit Live Traffic NSW.
Frequently asked questions
- The Lighting of the Sails during Vivid Sydney is a free event. You will not need a ticket.
- If you are attending a performance as part of the Vivid LIVE program, a valid ticket is required. It’s highly recommended that you purchase tickets in advance.
In line with our venue security procedures, Opera House security will be scanning and checking bags prior to entering the building. Bags will be scanned by an x-ray machine. Please travel lightly and do not bring items that require cloaking e.g. handbags bigger than A4-size, backpacks and umbrellas, which are not permitted inside our venues.
Yes, cloaking will remain available but it is strongly encouraged that you travel lightly and leave large, bulky items at home. Cloakroom attendants will use disposable paper tickets to keep track of your items.
The health, safety and wellbeing of everyone at the Sydney Opera House is our top priority. In line with this commitment, the Opera House became a smoke-free site in January 2022. Read our Smoke-free Environment Policy.
Please note that BYO alcohol or glass is not permitted onsite. Further information about items that are prohibited onsite can be found on our Conditions of Entry.
Ticketholders are welcome to bring their own water bottle (as long as it isn’t made of glass) but no other food and drinks are permitted inside our venues.
The Opera House has a range of onsite bars and restaurants which are perfect for a quick snack or sit-down meal.
Cashless payment methods are strongly encouraged. Please bring a credit or debit card for any onsite purchases.
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