RMIT School of Art is thrilled to see so many staff, students and alumni featured in the NGV exhibition Melbourne Now.

Today we feature School of Art alumnus Kait James.

Blak Design participant and School of Art alumnus Kait James is a Wadawurrung artist living and working in Melbourne. In her practice she asks questions relating to self, perception and the collective lack of knowledge of Indigenous culture and community, exploring her identity as an Australian woman with Indigenous and Anglo heritage.

Utilising punch needling techniques, James embroiders found materials such as souvenir tea towels that reference colonial settlement, subverting their original message with contemporary Indigenous imagery and references relating to language, native title and authenticity.

The KLF (Koori Liberation Front), 2023, combines fabric collage, punch needling, embroidery and rug tufting techniques. In a continuation of James’s exploration of kitsch ‘Australiana’ tea towels and other found materials, The KLF (Koori Liberation Front) subverts the loaded visual language of souvenirs with Indigenous imagery and pop culture references. In a scene that unfolds across a series of three panels, punctuated by the words ‘Unjustified & Ancient’, James reckons with a long history of cultural erasure and misconceptions of First Nations people in Australia.

KLF is also a play on words that takes inspiration from the popular, albeit controversial, 1990s British electronic band Kopyright Liberation Front. James is known for maintaining an idiosyncratic tone throughout her practice, navigating injustices with optimism and humour. Koori Liberation Front talks of emancipation, alienation and chaos, utilising found and historical motifs to navigate a space outside of colonisation.

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