There's a certain type of event that announces itself with: "WARNING: this event supports sequins, extreme theatrics, glamour, bright lights and good vibes". And it is a fabulous one.
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This Friday Melbourne performance duo The Huxleys - also known as Will and Garrett Huxley - are taking over the National Portrait Gallery for a night of splendour, surrealism, silliness and sparkle for Huxleys: Extreme and Unapologetic.
"Too much is never enough really is our motto," Will Huxley says.
"It's going to be a queer, outrageous disco party, celebrating all the things that we value.
"Performing in galleries is one of the things that we love doing and what we used to do the most, and it was a tough year last year. This is a really fun way to celebrate that hopefully, things are returning a little bit more to normal."
Huxleys: Extreme and Unapologetic is part of the Australian Love Stories exhibition, which opened at the gallery in March. As the name suggestions, the exhibition features love stories of all kinds - romantic, familiar, friendships, creative partnerships and more.
As well as putting on a party like no other (all while dressed in costumes like no other), The Huxleys also feature in the exhibition with two works from their Postcards from the Edge series. The connecting works - Small Town Boy (Perth) and Small Town Boy (Surfers Paradise) - are a representation of not only their romantic love but their creative one as well.
"The set that they chose for Australian Love Stories is the one image in the series where we meet. We're connected by a sequined string from our heart," Garrett Huxley says.
"It celebrates us falling in love and making this special connection that we have as artists and as lovers. And it's probably my favourite from that series.
"It's great that a gallery is celebrating queer love stories. It's non-traditional in that sense and it's a nice sign that they value our love story and that it's equal to anyone else's. That's a big thing about our work. It is about celebrating LGBTIQ identities and stories and making that the forefront of our work."
In a way, Friday's event will also be a representation of how far the artists have come in their careers. The pair started as visual artists - creating works such as that used in Australian Love Stories - and over time it has developed with the duo extending themselves into the performance art world.
As Will Huxley says, it is as if the work that features in their visual art, came to life in their performance work.
"What we do is quite extreme and to do it on our own would have been hard," he says.
"I think our love story together is that we believe in each other and support each other to be more outrageous and to take more risks. And taking risk is really important for us as artists.
"Sometimes I'm like, 'Oh my god, does this look ridiculous?' And Garrett will be like, 'Yes, it does. And that's why you should wear it'."
- Huxleys: Extreme and Unapologetic is at the National Portrait Gallery on Friday from 7pm. Tickets from portrait.gov.au.
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