Will and Garrett Huxley are Melbourne-based performance and visual artists who work together as The Huxleys.
The Huxleys produce uber camp pieces and spectacles across visual and performance arts. It's a spectacular treat of sparkles, surrealism and the absurd, they saturate their projects with a glamorous, androgynous freedom which sets out to bring some escapism and magic to everyday life.
Since 2014 they have performed, exhibited and participated in numerous exhibitions, projects and events in Australia, and internationally in London, Berlin, Moscow and Hong Kong.
We grew up in the suburbs,” Will says. “I felt really out of place as a queer kid. When I first saw Bowie or Grace Jones or Prince, these incredible people, I’d just think ‘there’s an escape for me’. “You were able to step out of being a shy, awkward, bullied queer kid into this fantastical character... Creating this spectacular beautiful alter ego enables me to get on stage, it’s a theatrical expression of something inside you that you were too scared (to show). Our work is very much about escaping from the everyday world and creating a beautiful spectacle.”
Our hero filmmaker John Waters famously said ‘take what society tells you is wrong with you and make it your style. Amplify it and celebrate it, you will win in the end’. We love that idea of making what is unique about you a thing to celebrate.
As the couple tell it, they met in Melbourne more than a decade ago, after fleeing their “fish-out-of- water” worlds in wider Australia. They bonded over a love of outsider artists like filmmaker John Waters, glam rockers T Rex, pop chameleon David Bowie and art performance icon Leigh Bowery. Feeding off these rare flowers, the pair collaborated on video and photography until The Huxleys emerged, and yes, Aldous Huxley was a distant relative.
"The thing that bothers us most in life is prejudice. Any kind of racism, sexism, ageism. Isms are not good. We want to promote a freedom in expression and a celebration of who you are regardless of race, gender, sexuality. It’s vital to be yourself and out there being seen and taking up space, no matter how big your costume is! We want young people to feel free from the feeling of persecution and hope that the world becomes a more loving and open place. By putting our queer, camp, femme and surreal vision out into the world we hope it inspires others to do the same."
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