The sensory aesthetes at Aesop have long recognised the impactful nature of storytelling, with the brand itself named after the Greek fabulist and storyteller. Now in its third year, the Aesop Queer Library has returned to showcase the transformative power of queer storytelling while using its platform to amplify queer voices.
Following a successful installation in Aesop QV, Melbourne, the Aesop Queer Library is set to hold court in Aesop Bondi Junction, Sydney in line with the Mardi Gras festivities. The third incarnation of the Aesop Queer Library focuses on contemporary stories that empower, with the brand extending its literary selection to better highlight and champion a wider representation of BIPOC, transgender, and gender non-conforming authors.
“The well-commanded word has served our species from the beginning. Fashioned into a sharpened rock, it has fed us. As a flint and tinder it has kept us warm. In hammer-form, it has built us shelters,” writes the brand on its editorial platform, The Athenaeum. “But one of the pitfalls of this ever-evolving tool—this dialoguing around and cataloguing of human experience—is that it has been dominated by one particular set of craftspeople. These power-holders, through chance or intergenerational privilege, have been both the witting and unwitting beneficiaries of generations of the dispossession, disenfranchisement and outright erasure of others. Encouraged to foster and fortify their environments, these loudest voices have been enabled—through sheer volume of both noise and mass—to develop the landscape in a way that reflects their values, and supports their needs. From this landscape, certain pervasive narratives have been able to grow and thrive, to the detriment of others—namely, narratives around gender, sexuality and race.”
With that in mind, the sensorial brand has signalled its commitment to carving out a space for Australian and New Zealand LGBTQIA+ voices that are underheard on the global stage, through a selection of titles purchased from independent queer bookstore Hares & Hyenas, as well as Allen & Unwin and University of Queensland Press. In line with previous years, the Aesop Queer Library allows visitors to take home a complimentary book of their choice (no purchase required).
The Melbourne activation took place from the 7th to 11th February, while the Sydney iteration will run from 28th February to 3rd March, 2024. The Aesop Bondi Junction store is located at 3038/500 Oxford St, Bondi Junction NSW 2022.
Words by AR Staff
