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

Today we feature alumnus Michelle Mantsio.

Alumnus Michelle Mantsio works across video, installation, textiles and performance. Her work is research-based and often involves interviews and fieldwork that structure or inform the final outcome. She also explores how people respond to their environment through art and design. In previous work she has drawn on film stills from Robert Altman’s Short Cuts (1993), Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm (1997) and David Lynch’s Wild At Heart (1990), using their colours and shapes to structure textile-based, moveable sculptures and a floor drawing. Inspired by John Hillcoat’s 1981 film Ghosts… of the Civil Dead, she has also made work about imagined or re-mapped spaces, taking inspiration from the dimensions of a standard prison cell as a metaphor for the tensions of containment and constraint, and the role of the imagination in transcending these environments. 

Mantsio’s latest film, Ner Did It, 2023, focuses on Ner, the imaginary friend of the artist’s nephew. Mantsio is interested in connecting with the unfettered expression and imaginative freedom that children seem to naturally muster. Exploring ‘playacting’ as a theoretical basis for the work, Ner Did It offers a filmic portrait of multiple selves through several evocations of inner lives and interior spaces.

Monday 7 August, 3.30–5.00pm
Tuesday 8 August, 3.30–5.00pm
Wednesday 9 August, 3.30–5.00pm
Thursday 10 August, 3.30–5.00pm
Friday 11 August, 3.30–5.00pm
Saturday 12 August, 3.30–5.00pm
Sunday 13 August, 3.30–5.00pm

Presented as part of Melbourne Now's Artist Film Program co-curated with RMIT School of Art alumnus Olivia Koh from recess, a Naarm/Melbourne based online platform showcasing contemporary moving-image works.

Free entry
Booking is not required

The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Fed Square
Community Hall
Ground Level

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