Curator Rebecca Evans still seems gobsmacked by the extreme shortness of the former premier's pink shorts. "There's so much urban myth and legend wrapped up in such a teeny, tiny in-seam," she told AAP. "You wouldn't believe how tiny they are, they're not there, they're really quite small.
" The teeny-tiny trunks made national headlines back in 1972 when Don Dunstan wore them on the steps of the South Australian Parliament, exactly 52 years ago on Friday. Back then, Adelaide was a conservative town, and Dunstan was radical, decriminalising homosexuality and in many ways making South Australia the most progressive state in the nation. So it seems, er, fitting, that the shorts (in a shade of what would now be called dusty pink) are on show as part of the Art Gallery of South Australia's summer exhibition Radical Textiles.
From union flags to suffrage tapestries, runway fashions and those notorious trunks, it's the first exhibition of its kind in Australia to bring together such a wide range of artworks under the banner of textiles. At a preview of the show on Friday, Yankunytjatjara artist Zaachariaha Fielding (also one half of Australia's 2024 Eurovision entry Electric Fields) was on hand to show off a couture gown, from a collaboration with fashion label Romance Was Born. The exhibition of more than 200 works also includes a pair of quilts by Sydney artist Nell, made from more than 440 patches sent by people around the world, each featuring the name of a significant woman in t.