IN CONVERSATION WITH SIDNEY MCMAHON
”Sixty-nine”
Thursday 14 August, 6-7:30pm
Verge Gallery
Register interest here
Sidney McMahon, Sixty-nine, 2025, installation view. Photography by Jessica Maurer.
The sculptural forms within Sidney McMahon's exhibition Sixty-nine speak to the architecture of the home, engaging with domestic spaces as a means to consider how care and rupture coexist, how desire and mourning blur, and how queer intimacy reclaims space within familiar cycles of loss, pleasure, and transformation.
To delve deeper into these ideas, join our In Conversation at Verge, at which Sidney will chat to emerging artist and Sydney College of the Arts student Connor Chen about Sixty-nine within the exhibition space.
Free food and drink provided. All welcome.
Learn more about the exhibition and related public programs here.
About the speakers:
Connor Chen
Connor Chen is a queer Chinese Australian artist working on Gadigal land, and a third year SCA student yelling at the universe. Navigating the cross sections of technology, the infinite world and the minute self. Chen is interested in the stupid machines that sing and the tiring ordeal of mundane existence. Connor Chen works across digital, video and sculptural mediums and he likes to draw comics as well.
Sidney McMahon
Sidney McMahon is an interdisciplinary artist whose installations, videos, and performances delve into the entanglements of desire, technology, and queer embodiment. Shaped by lived experience, their work navigates porous boundaries between self and other, drawing on personal narratives to explore broader themes of intimacy and transformation. Often unfolding through relational, affective, and narrative-based processes, McMahon’s practice interrogates systems of power and care, while holding space for tenderness, absurdity, and rage.
McMahon holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Southern Queensland (2009), a BFA (Hons, 2010) and MFA (2015) from Sydney College of the Arts at the University of Sydney, and a Master of Art Curatorship (USYD, 2011). They have exhibited nationally and internationally in solo, group, and curatorial projects including at ACCA (VIC), ACE Open (SA), Outer Space (QLD), Raygun (QLD), Goulburn Regional Art Gallery (NSW), Auto Italia (LDN), Clearview Ltd (LDN), and Open Source Gallery (NY).
VENUE ACCESS
Wheelchair access - there are two lifts available: one on City Rd and one on Maze Crescent.
Accessible and all-gender bathrooms are located about 90 metres from Verge. They are equipped with a handrail. A baby-change table is available.
Guide Dogs and support animals are welcome at Verge.
For detailed access information to the venue, please visit the Access page on our website.
If you have any further questions, suggestions, or would like any information in another format, please don't hesitate to get in touch with us at vergeassistant@usu.edu.au, or via phone at (02) 9563 6218.