CREATION DEBORAH KELLY

Deborah Kelly’s CREATION is a multi-venue, multi-disciplinary collaborative artwork about human connection, learning exchange, belief and hope that takes the form of a queer insurrectionary science fiction climate change religion.

CREATION evolves in real-time through a series of cross-disciplinary projects, public brainstorms and participatory performances drawn from practical politics, evidence, mysticism and practices of collectivity. It seeks to enchant powers of collective creativity and cooperative decision-making, and to centre marginalised voices in all its aspects.

At the heart of CREATION is The Liturgy of the Saprophyte by artist and writer SJ Norman, which sets out the principles and aspirations of this new belief system, and grounds the CREATION project in a gothic First Nations sensibility. The liturgy guides the iterations of CREATION throughout artforms, across time and space.

CREATION continues its evolution at Horsham Regional Art Gallery in 2023, bringing together elements from each of its previous sites in interesting and unexpected ways to create a magnificent new spectacle of song, dance, poetry, costume and custom in a joyous celebration of human connection and collaboration.

Image: CREATION Regalia, James Lionel King co-design and construction 2021. Cotton, wool, silk, linen, lace, mother of pearl, wire, papier mache, felt, paint, glue, beads, pearls. Installation view, Griffith University Art Museum, Brisbane, 2022. Photo: Carl Warner.