Artists:

Bronte Berenger
Majed Fayad
Lucy Foster
William Hawkins
Annabelle Hayes
Paulina Hupe
Roberta Joy Rich
Kenneth Lancelot Suico
Paul McMahon

Six O'clock Swill was an exhibition on the 26th of October 2017 above the Union Hotel at 164 Gore street, Fitzroy, Melbourne.

The Union: Unity. From drinks at the pub stems ceremonial gesture (in honour of the lucky Countries rich, cultural condition.) Unable to separate how much or how little we truly perceive or understand of it, we embrace the idea that this is our tradition.

The ‘six o'clock swill’ was an Australian/New Zealand slang term for the last-minute rush to buy drinks at the pub before its mandatory closing time of 6pm. Introduced as a temporary measure during the First World War, the curfew remained in place till 1967. In that time, a culture of heavy drinking developed within Australian communities; nine till fivers would heedlessly consume as much alcohol within the given hour before returning home to their domestic compromise. 

Australian drinking culture is known for its fun loving and carefree nature, alongside its excess and violence. The effect of alcohol impinges natural inhibition, allowing for what might usually be glanced over, to become exposed. Seldom viewed as a harmful drug, drinking is seen as an imperative activity that unites communities as opposed to its ill-favoured realities. It is fitting then that our drinking culture has a history of violence, racism, segregation and sexism as these are topics which are often casually brushed off as being a natural part of Australian frivolity. 

A xerox of a1950’s domestic interior, the space situates itself above The Union pub; a public place loaded with romance, indulgence, laughter, escapism, lewdness and masculinity. The red congealed carpet offers a festering aftermath of the bloody six o'clock swill. A restriction that was once introduced to improve the domestic life of blue collar Australians, resulted in an endemic culture of cyclical binge drinking. 

Curated by Lucy Foster and William Hawkins

Documentation by Lucy Foster