Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art) Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art) (Honours) Bachelor of Arts (Photography) Masters Programs Higher Degree by Research
2024 School of Art Graduates 2023 School of Art Graduates 2022 School of Art Graduates 2021 Graduate Show 2020 Graduate Festival
International ECNU International Pathway Program SoA World Map Hong Kong Art School
CAST AEGIS CREATIVE CARE IMAGING FUTURES LAB MATA (MATERIALS) SAAC (SOUND)
Video Channel Art School Portal
Wellbeing
Featured Stories Photos
 

RMIT School of Art

Newsletter Highlights 2024

 
 

Wominjeka 

As we finish the year, we are delighted to share this overview of activity in the School of Art from 2024. This newsletter captures highlights from members of our community across the last 12 months, including staff and students, as well as alumni, collaborators and friends. As you can see, it has been a remarkable year in terms of the range of activities and their outcomes.

We look forward to 2025 and building on these many great projects. Thank you for your ongoing interest and support.

We wish you and yours a safe, joyful and relaxing festive season.

Professor Kit Wise
Dean, School of Art

 
 

New Staff Appointments

 
 

Image: courtesy of Torika Bolatagici

Dr Torika Bolatagici

Dr Torika Bolatagici has recently been appointed as the Program Manager for the Master of Fine Art. Torika brings a wealth of experience and unique insight to the School, having been the academic lead for Photography at Deakin University. As an artist and scholar, Torika has a particular research interest in decolonial lens-based practices, contemporary visual culture and socially engaged projects.  Her traditional and non-traditional research outcomes place community and collaboration at the centre of her inquiries. Torika’s research is driven by an authentic commitment to the communities that she belongs to and is accountable to. Her multidisciplinary projects centre the counter-narrative of marginalised histories and knowledges through curatorial collaboration, symposia and public programming, such as the Contemporary Pacific Arts Festival Symposium, the Pacific Photobook Project and the Community Reading Room.

Image: courtesy of Dameeli Coates

Dameeli Coates

Vice Chancellor’s Indigenous Doctoral Fellow Dameeli Coates is a Wakka Wakka woman whose matriarchal family are from Southern Queensland. She is a mother, sister, textile artist and designer who grew up on Kaurna Yarta. She spent 20 years working as a Human Rights campaigner in Indigenous affairs. She has an Honours degree in Textile Design from Central Saint Martin’s College, London. Her curatorial interests stem from her Honours research, examining the relationships between dispossession, displacement and settler colonial borders on Indigenous identities and collective sense of belonging.

Image: courtesy of Jody Haines

Jody Haines

Associate Lecturer Jody Haines (palawa) is a contemporary artist based in Naarm. Her unique practice blends social practice, photo-media (photography/video/film), and public art, creating large-scale public activations that include projections, paste-ups, and street-wide photographic installations. Rooted in Indigenous feminist K/new/Known materialism, Jody's work explores themes of identity, representation, and the female gaze. Jody is completing her PhD in the School of Art. Jody will be based in Photography but engaging across the School.

Image: courtesy of Clare Humphries

Dr Clare Humphries 

Lecturer Dr Clare Humphries is an Australian artist who was born in Naarm/Melbourne and lived in London from 2018-2023. She completed a PhD and BFA at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT University), and has lectured in substantial roles at the Victorian College of the Arts (The University of Melbourne), the National Art School (Sydney), the Royal College of Art (UK), and Norwich University of the Arts (UK). 

Clare’s practice looks at the ways an intangible experience of ‘aura’ can be revealed through image and materiality. Drawing, in part, on Walter Benjamin’s idea of aura as a strange sensation of distance brought near, Clare explores experiences of unsettled perception, where notions that appear to be opposing are brought together, such as close-and-far, or past-and-present. Working with processes that merge drawing and printmaking, she depicts objects that are in transition between one state and another, or caught in a moment of suspension and haze. She is driven by a curiosity for the way encounters with things ‘in-between’ can produce moments of sudden aliveness that re-awaken our felt connections to the world around us, and arouse our capacity to be affected. Clare’s work is represented in many public collections including the National Gallery of Australia, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the State Library of Victoria. 

Image: courtesy of Clare McCracken

Dr Clare McCracken

Bachelor Arts (Fine Art) (Honours) Program Manager Dr Clare McCracken’s site-responsive art practice and research aim to create a critical discourse about mobility futures and pasts, climate change, and settler colonialism. Their creative outcomes include large-scale immersive installations, performative fieldwork, temporary and permanent public artworks, narrative non-fiction audio and written works, and the curation of innovative permanent and temporary public artworks.  Recent exhibitions include Wild Country at Wangaratta Regional Gallery, 2024 and Squishy Taylor and the City — Wide Ghost Plague, 2021, which was shortlisted for the Best Work in Festival Award at the Fringe Festival Melbourne in 2021 and 2023 and received an honourable mention at the Freeplay Awards in 2024. Recent publications include ‘Killing Snowmen: Big Things and Rural Australia’s Existential Crises’ in Mobility Humanities, 2022 and ‘Liminality When Grounded: Micro-mobilities in Contemporary Art Practice during the COVID-19 Pandemic’ written with Pia Johnson in Liminality, Transgression and Space Across the World, 2024. 

Image: courtesy of Arlo Mountford

Dr Arlo Mountford

Over the past 20 years Dr Arlo Mountford has developed an extensive practice, exhibiting nationally and internationally whilst primarily being based in Naarm (Melbourne) Australia. His work spans a wide field of mediums, often resulting in large scale installations which integrate sound, video, digital animation as well as object-based work, drawing and photography. Conceptually his practice is preoccupied with history and time, both as a burden to, and as a resource for contemporary art making.
 
In 2020 Arlo completed a PhD at Monash University investigating the perspective of unknowing and foolishness as art making strategies. Since 2015 Arlo has lectured both at RMIT University and the Victorian College of the Arts predominantly focusing on developing student skills and understanding of digital and experimental media.

Arlo Mountford’s will be the Bachelor of Arts (Photography) Program Manager from 2025.

Image: courtesy of Nicole Polentas

Dr Nicole Polentas

Academic Services Officer Nicole Polentas is a Greek Australian multidisciplinary artist with a focus on contemporary jewellery and object. Her practice is defined by an ongoing investigation of text and symbolism in order to produce abstracted conceptual works. Combing diverse mediums, the objects activate a dialogue grounded in the artist’s personal and cultural experiences. She has received a Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art), a Master of Fine Art and a PhD in 2015 at RMIT University. Nicole has successfully exhibited both nationally and internationally including Melbourne Now’13 at The NGV, A Fine Possession: Jewellery and Identity at the Powerhouse Museum and Schmuck in Munich. Nicole has held solo shows in Australia , Europe and the US. She has won numerous awards, and her work is included in collections of the Powerhouse Museum, Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery, The Bluestone Collection in Melbourne, The MacMillan Collection at RMIT University, Museum Espace Solidor in Cagnes—sur—Mer and the Illias Lalaounis Jewelry Museum in Athens. Currently working as an Academic Officer, she has been a sessional lecturer in Gold and Silversmithing since 2016. 

Image: courtesy of Faiza Rezai

Faiza Rezai

Technical Officer Faiza Rezai is a visual artist based in Melbourne. She completed her Bachelor of Fine Art degree from RMIT University in 2017, where she improved her skills across various artistic disciplines. She is a technician in School of Art since 2019. Her practice includes a diverse range of techniques, including photography, printmaking, screen printing, gallery install, and digital editing. As a muslim woman, her work often reflects her personal experiences and cultural heritage, offering perceptive review on contemporary issues of identity. Her work explores into the question of how one can find a sense of belonging within a diaspora.

Image :Christian Thompson, Yulga Gargarda (The Flower Moon), C Type print, 2024. Courtesy the artist and Sarah Scout Presents, Melbourne.

Dr Christian Thompson, AO

Dr Christian Thompson has been appointed as a Vice Chancellor’s Indigenous Senior Research Fellow. Christian is an Australian born contemporary artist whose work explores notions of identity, cultural hybridity & history. Formally trained as a sculptor, Thompson’s multidisciplinary practice engages mediums such as photography, video, sculpture, performance & sound. His work focuses on the exploration of identity, sexuality, gender, race and memory. In his live performances and conceptual portraits he inhabits a range of personas achieved through handcrafted costumes & carefully orchestrated poses & backdrops. In 2010 Thompson made history when he became the first Aboriginal Australian to be admitted into the University of Oxford in its 900-year history. He is currently a research affiliate at the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford. Thompson holds a Doctorate of Philosophy (Fine Art), Trinity College, University of Oxford, United Kingdom, Master of Theatre, Amsterdam School of Arts, Das Arts, The Netherlands, Masters of Fine Art (Sculpture) RMIT University and Honours (Sculpture) RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia and a Bachelor of Fine Art from the University of Southern Queensland, Australia. His works are held in major international and national collections. In 2018 he was awarded an Officer of the Order of Australia for distinguished service to the visual arts as a sculptor, photographer, video and performance artist, and as a role model for young Indigenous artists. 

See here for full bio. 

 

New Internal Appointments

 
 

Image: courtesy of Marnie Badham

Associate Professor Marnie Badham

Associate Professor Marnie Badham and Dr Alan Hill appointed Responsible Practice Leads

Associate Professor Marnie Badham is Associate Professor at the School of Art at RMIT University in Naarm (Melbourne), Australia. 

With a twenty-five-year history of art and social justice in Australia and Canada, Marnie's research sits at the intersection of socially-engaged art practices, participatory methodologies and the politics of cultural measurement. 

See here for full bio. 

Image: courtesy of Isabella Capezio

Isabella Capezio

Isabella Capezio appointed Belonging Lead

Isabella Capezio is a photographer, artist and a lecturer in Photography in the School of Art at RMIT. 

Isabella’s research and artwork engages in themes of failure, queerness and landscape. Isabella is experimenting with alternative ways to reflect on place, vision, ‘nature’ and colonial frameworks of power through landscape photography.

Isabella’s interest in modes of publication and the production of photobooks has led to the role of coordinator of the Asia-Pacific Photo-book Archive and within that role has facilitated a number of workshops in the Asia Pacific region. Isabella has also co-run a small photographic gallery, and has curated educational materials for the photojournalism collective #Dysturb. 

Image: courtesy of Greg Creek

Dr Greg Creek

Dr Greg Creek appointed Program Lead for Hong Kong BA (Fine Art)  

Dr Greg Creek’s practice represents a political perspective on personal and public histories, engaging narrative, allegory and often specific local references. His work has been in group and individual exhibitions in Australia and internationally including Dog Whistlers, Kunstraumarcade, Vienna, Austria (2016), The Desktop Drawings, Shepparton Art Museum (2015), The Enlightenments, Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh (2009), and The Allegorical Imperative, ACCA (2003). He has been the recipient of several residencies and commissions and was awarded the Len Fox painting prize (2022). He completed a PhD at RMIT University (2014).

Image: courtesy of Mikala Dwyer

Professor Mikala Dwyer

Professor Mikala Dwyer appointed Drawing Studio Leader 

In works that explore how we relate to the object-world, Professor Mikala Dwyer has pushed the limits of sculpture, painting and performance, establishing herself as one of Australia's most important contemporary artists. She has been honoured with solo survey exhibitions at Sydney's two major art museums, the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Museum of Contemporary Art, as well as at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, and the Institute of Modern Art in Brisbane. 

See here for full bio. 

Image: courtesy of Alan Hill

Dr Alan Hill

Dr Alan Hill and Associate Professor Marnie Badham appointed Responsible Practice Leads

Lecturer Dr Alan Hill is a photographer and art-researcher who regularly collaborates locally, internationally and across disciplines, with particular focus on the potential of documentary and socially-engaged lens-based practices and education. 

Image: courtesy of Pia Johnson

Dr Pia Johnson

Dr Pia Johnson appointed Associate Dean, Photography 

Dr Pia Johnson is a photographer and visual artist, teacher and curator, whose practice emerged out of concern with issues of cultural identity and difference, stemming from her mixed background of Chinese Italian-Australian descent. These themes have underpinned her interest in memory, cultural spaces and performance, to investigate notions of transcultural identity, belonging and otherness through photography. Her works have been awarded and exhibited across Australia and internationally and are collected in private and public collections including the National Gallery of Victoria. Known as one of Australia’s distinctive performance photography and portrait artists for over a decade, Pia has commissions from all the major performing arts organisations in Australia. Pia has her own podcast Out of the Frame: Conversations about Photography, which profiles contemporary photographers and artists speaking about their practice and photographic concerns today. 

Image: courtesy of Grace McQuilten

Professor Grace McQuilten

Professor Grace McQuilten has been appointed Associate Dean, Research and Innovation

Professor Grace McQuilten is a published art historian and curator with expertise in contemporary art and design, public art, social practice, social enterprise and community development. Her research champions inclusive models of curatorship and art history. Her work explores new approaches to the visual arts economy, including arts-based social enterprise, and explores questions of social justice, equity, diversity and inclusion in contemporary art, craft and design. 

See here for full bio.

Image: courtesy of Rebecca Nadjowski

Dr Rebecca Nadjowski

Dr Rebecca Nadjowski appointed Master of Photography Program Manager 

Dr Rebecca Najdowski is an artist and Senior Lecturer in the School of Art. Her research addresses the ways that humans, technology, and more-than-human nature are entangled. Rebecca’s creative practice explores the materiality of imaging technologies — from machine learning to experimental analogue photography — to offer alternative ways of sensing nature. Her photographs and videos have been presented internationally, including at the Museum Belvédère (Netherlands), the Museum of Australian Photography (Australia), and Athens Digital Art Festival (Greece). 

Image: courtesy of Thao Nguyen

Thao Nguyen

After three years of inspired leadership of CAST, Dr Fiona Hillary is handing over the mantle to Thao Nguyen (CAST Deputy Leader) and Dr Amy Spiers (CAST Leader). Working together, Thao and Amy will continue to grow and strengthen CAST's research, community and industry vision

Thao Nguyen is a Vietnamese-Australian artist, educator and researcher based in Naarm. 

She has a Masters of Arts (Art in Public Space), a Bachelors in Fashion Design and is currently studying a PhD in the School of Art at RMIT University.  Her research and creative practice investigate the impacts of Whiteness and the weaponisation of language on Asian-Australians.

Image: courtesy of Daniel Palmer

Professor Daniel Palmer

Professor Daniel Palmer appointed Art History and Theory Leader 

Daniel Palmer is a Professor in the School of Art at RMIT University. 
 
Daniel Palmer's research and professional practice focuses on contemporary art and cultural theory, with a particular emphasis on photography and digital media. Between 2018 and 2023 he was Associate Dean of Research and Innovation in the School of Art at RMIT. Prior to joining RMIT in 2018, Palmer was Associate Dean of Graduate Research and Associate Professor in the Art History & Theory Program at Monash Art, Design & Architecture. He also has a long association with the Centre for Contemporary Photography in Melbourne, first as a curator and later on the board of management. 
 
See here for full bio. 

Image: Alison Bennett, Drew Pettifer at Imaging Pasts and Futures symposium, LASALLE, Singapore (Nov 2024)

Associate Professor Drew Pettifer

Associate Professor Drew Pettifer appointed International Coordinator 2025–28.

Drew Pettifer will take over the role of School of Art International Coordinator from Dr Tammy Wong Hulbert in 2025. For the past four years Drew has led the Bachelor of Art (Fine Art) Hong Kong program, deepening the long-term relationship with our partners in the region. He looks forward to further developing the School of Art’s strategic partnerships and international activities over the duration of his appointment.

Image: courtesy of Steven Rendall and Sarah Tomasetti

Dr Steven Rendall and Dr Sarah Tomasetti

Dr Steven Rendall and Dr Sarah Tomasetti appointed Studio Leaders in Painting 

Dr Steven Rendell’s work is in many significant collections including NGV, MUMA, Geelong Gallery and RMIT. He is represented by Niagara Galleries. 

Dr Sarah Tomasetti is an artist specialising in the material agency of medieval techniques and how these connect through geological processes to a living world.

Image: courtesy of Amy Spiers

Dr Amy Spiers 

After three years of inspired leadership of CAST, Dr Fiona Hillary is handing over the mantle to Dr Amy Spiers (CAST Leader) and Thao Nguyen (CAST Deputy Leader). Working together, Amy and Thao will continue to grow and strengthen CAST's research, community and industry vision

Dr Amy Spiers is a Vice Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Fellow at RMIT School of Art. She is a practicing artist, curator, writer and researcher in the field of public and socially engaged art. 

Amy's socially engaged, critical art practice and research aims to prompt questions and debate about present society particularly about the gaps and silences in public discourse where difficult histories and social issues are overlooked or smoothed over. 

See here for full bio.

 

New Honorary Appointments

 
 

Image: courtesy of Peter Ellis

Honorary Associate Professor Peter Ellis

Peter Ellis is a highly esteemed alumnus, artist and educator. Peter’s engagement with the field of fine art and knowledge of industry spans some 42 years. Peter has a diverse visual art practice producing, exhibiting and publishing creative works in the form of paintings, drawings, prints, multiples, objects, artist’s books, zines, installations, digital and sonic works.

As an Honorary Associate Professor Peter Ellis would continue to contribute his skills and knowledge to the School of Art, the College and RMIT University. He has excelled in his 42-year academic contribution to RMIT University, (23 of these as Associate Professor and Studio Leader of Painting) through Leadership, Research, Teaching, Scholarly and Community Engagement at a National and International level.

Image: courtesy of Richard Harding

Honorary Fellow Dr Richard Harding

Dr Richard Harding is an artist, curator and educator based in Naarm, Melbourne.

Richard has a diverse range of expert knowledge and skills expressed from and via a print-based practice. His research examines codes of representation through a queer lens with a focus on orientation and gender to explore perceptions of liberation and oppression. His art praxis is informed by architectural and queer theory utilising reproductive technologies as a vehicle for ongoing studio and gallery investigations.

He has a wide-ranging lived experience as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community aiding alternative theoretical and philosophical positions in art history, theory and practice. With over 30 years in the tertiary education sector, Harding has a comprehensive understanding of past, present and updated modes of delivering information to students and staff. His involvement in curriculum development has helped advance course and program depth and growth for Degree and Honours programs in RMIT School of Art.

Harding curated the acclaimed print survey exhibition ‘Out of the Matrix’ in 2016 presented at RMIT Gallery, co-curated ‘NEWSROOM’ at Counihan Gallery in Brunswick in 2021 and ‘Gallery 25’ in 2022 at ECU in WA. In 2023 he co-curated two international exchange exhibitions; ‘Printmaking Today Edition 2’ from Institute Technology Bandung and ‘Print Stories: Narratives from Hong Kong’ sourced from Art Horizon Workshop Hong Kong.

He recently curated the ‘GAZE’ exhibition bringing together four artists from the LGBTQIA+ community who have engaged with Australian Print Workshop to create original prints and artist books as part of Victoria PRIDE 2024.

Harding is aligned with research groups ‘Queer(y)ing Creative Practice’ and ‘The News Network Project’. His artworks, exhibitions and curatorial projects are constructed to encourage discussions around socio-political concerns. He is currently researching a solo project, ‘Moving in Circles’, to be presented in July 2024 at Megalo Print Studio, Canberra ACT.

Image: courtesy of Louise Weaver

Honorary Fellow Louise Weaver

Louise Weaver has over 30 years expertise in tertiary art education within the School of Art. She has developed and taught curriculum in painting, drawing, installation and a range of multi discipline media. Louise has lectured internationally in Korea, Singapore, New Zealand and Hong Kong. She was awarded PhD equivalence by RMIT University and has extensive Post Graduate supervisory experience.

Louise Weaver has exhibited widely in Australia and Internationally. Louise uses a diverse range of genres and media in her work, her deep engagement and experimentation with a variety of materials, has resulted in a practice that includes sculpture, painting, drawing, collage, prints, and photography to moving image, sound, and installation. Her paintings and sculptures are absorbed by the dynamics and fragility of the natural world, environmental, social, and feminist concerns. “In Weaver’s allusive world, poetry and meaning take form in the complex spaces between appearances, in the seemingly endless interchange between gestures, ideas and feeling. Highly propositional, her works are imaginative and exquisite objects, tableaux, constellations, and fields for contemplation. Through the intricate traceries, patterns, webs, and nets that appear and reappear throughout her practice, Weaver suggests a complex interconnected universe of fragile beauty that comprises things real and imagined, fleeting and eternal.”

Louise Weaver has held 27 individual exhibitions and more than 200 group exhibitions: including curated exhibitions in 14 countries internationally. Her works are held in many significant public and private collections including the British Museum, UK; Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia and Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.

Adjunct Senior Industry Fellow Melissa Delaney

Melissa DeLaney is Chief Executive Officer of Australian Network for Art & Technology (ANAT) which has been at the forefront of the global uptake of artists working with the science and technology sectors.  RMIT and ANAT have co-signed a Memorandum of Understanding.  Melissa’s work dwells in the intersections of arts and cultural development, education and government, recreation, wellness, creative industries, technology and science, in work she sees as social sculpture.  A vital focus of the work and practice is interdisciplinary partnerships and collaboration. With post graduate qualifications in visual art and arts management, and most recently completing a Master in Creative Industries through the University of Newcastle in NSW, Australia. Melissa’s research is centred around creating systems of care, resources and networks, and practice shaped by a philosophical grounding in the slow movement and the intimate.

Melissa is also certified in mindfulness meditation teaching, is a trained raw food chef and Yin Yoga teacher and holds a graduate degree in Wellness (Health Science) through RMIT University (Melbourne, Australia), fields she brings into a holistic approach to work and leadership.

 

Awards, Prizes and Commissions

 
 

Image: (left to right) Associate Professor Kristen Sharp, Professor David Forrest, Dr Andrew Gunnell, Dr David Thomas, Dr Andrew Tetzlaff, Dr Keely Macarow, Dr Jerry Galea, Dr Richard Harding, Dr Martine Corompt, Dr Claire McCardle, Dr Nick Bastin, Dr Kieran Begley, Dr Nicholas Bastin, Dr Tassia Joannides.

2024 PhD graduation 

A very warm congratulations to Dr Kieran Begley, Dr Andrew Gunnell, Dr Daniel Marks, Dr Claire McArdle, Dr Jessie Scott, Dr Andrew Tetzlaff and Dr Jerry Galea who graduated at the PhD Graduation on Friday 17 May 2024. 

A very warm and special mention also of the posthumous PhD awarded to Dr Uncle Brian McKinnon at the May PhD Graduation.

It is a delight to see our colleagues graduate with their PhDs after all the hard work which goes in to submitting projects for examination and presenting exam exhibitions and performances.

Congratulations also to their supervisors, friends and family who supported, mentored and guided the candidates during their candidature.

RMIT Artothek Program Wins Prestigious Award 

We are thrilled that RMIT Art Collection’s Artothek program has been awarded Small Project of the Year at the 2024 Victorian Museums and Galleries Awards.

This recognition celebrates the innovative and impactful work of Artothek, Australia’s first university art lending library, which allows RMIT students to bring original art into their homes.

The judges praised Artothek’s ability to make high-quality art accessible to students, noting, “Artothek has made high-quality art accessible to RMIT students... By fostering deep engagement with art and supporting student wellbeing, the program has opened up new opportunities for collections staff and demonstrated a groundbreaking approach to risk management, all while enhancing community engagement and making art more accessible. The program’s thoughtful design and strong impact have redefined how cultural assets are shared and appreciated within the university.”  

Since its inception, Artothek has played a transformative role in shaping student engagement with art. The idea was initially proposed in 2020 by German-based academic and RMIT School of Art Senior Industry Fellow Dr Christoph Dahlhausen, who donated around 250 works on paper to RMIT with the vision of creating an art lending library. Artothek draws inspiration from the artothek model widely practiced in Germany since the late 1960s.  

RMIT’s commitment to both art and design, as well as student well-being, makes it the ideal institution to host such an initiative. This award reflects the creativity and dedication of everyone involved in making Artothek a reality and reinforces RMIT's leadership in integrating cultural engagement into the student experience in new and meaningful ways.

Image: Elizabeth Marsden (Manager, Cultural Collections) accepts the award for Small Project of the Year at the 2024 Victorian Museums and Galleries Awards.
Image credit: Sharon Blance.

Phuong Nguyen Le, Untitled, from ‘Vở ô ly’ series, 2024, photocopy printed photograph on Vietnamese notebook paper, handwriting, ballpoint pen, felt pen, colour marker, 20 x 30cm

The Ballarat International Foto Biennale GradFoto 2024

Congratulations to RMIT Bachelor of Arts (Photography) (Honours) graduate Lê Nguyên Phương who was awarded the Ballarat International Foto Biennale GradFoto 2024 prize for his series Vở ô ly. 

The Ballarat International Foto Biennale GradFoto 2024 exhibition features 22 finalists from 10 universities across Australian and New Zealand. Eleven of the 2024 finalists are graduates of five programs across RMIT.

Highly Commended — Jesse Pretorius, Bachelor of Arts (Photography) (Honours)  
Highly Commended — Emily Raffaele, Diploma of Photography and Digital Imaging  
Brent Leideritz, Master of Photography
King Chuen Wong, Master of Photography
Kirra Jeram, Master of Photography
Lee O’Donoghue, Bachelor of Arts (Photography)   
Maya Melrose, Bachelor of Arts (Photography)   
Matthew Parsons, Bachelor of Arts (Photography) 
Tilly Parsons, Bachelor of Arts (Photography)  
Mei Wah Williams, Bachelor of Arts (Fine Arts) (Honours)  

GradFoto was judged this year by Alejandro Acín, founder-director of IC Visual Lab, an independent photography platform that led the 2024 Bristol Photo Festival.

Dr Martine Corompt and Camilla Hannan

At The Capitol: we're all waiting... 

Waiting. It might not be when we feel our most comfortable, and it might not be the usual inspiration for performance art. 

But waiting is exactly what the Capitol Commission 2024, The Waiting Room, delivered to an enthralled and slightly anxious audience at The Capitol. The Waiting Room coincided with The Capitol’s 100th birthday celebration  and was part Ted Talk and part evangelical zealotry, featuring expanded theatrical experiences recreating archetypal cinematic motifs, drenched in epic surround sound.  

The work was designed by RMIT Senior Lecturer, School of Art, Martine Corompt, alongside RMIT alum and The Guardian Australia audio journalist, Camilla Hannan, as a means to explore their research across modes.  

Corompt said the project was a unique opportunity to explore and execute her research practice and expand on years of collaborative projects with Hannan. “This was an amazing chance to work on an impressive scale — with the support of an expert team and a spectacular venue, we have been able to dream up something big,” Corompt said.  “We wanted to ask: what if the cinema is just a big waiting room — an elaborate distraction to occupy us until the ‘real thing’ happens. And if that’s the case, what is it that we are really waiting for?”  

The work was performed by Todd Levi, with a score performed live by the Overtone Ensemble. RMIT students from multiple disciplines developed and filmed choreographed sequences, which were woven through the show. Cinematography was coordinated by RMIT's Bronek Kozka, lighting was specially designed for The Capitol’s bespoke roof lighting system by RMIT's Rob Curulli, and a house band and musical accompaniment was led by RMIT’s Tim Catlin. 

The Waiting Room was developed through the ACMI + RMIT ‘Audience Lab’ and supported by the City of Melbourne. It has been commissioned for full development as part of RMIT's Capitol Innovation Fund. 

Professor Mikala Dwyer

Professor Mikala Dwyer public artworks Continuum and Shelter of Hollows were unveiled recently in Sydney.

Continuum is a series of sculptural elements located in both entrances at Martin Place Station.

The south entrance, at Castlereagh Street, hosts a dramatic and colorful glazed ceramic tile wall mural that celebrates the tempo and shape of train travel — the tracks, sleepers, networks, and repetitive train movements can be seen through simple geometric shapes.

These classical shapes have been further developed into six sculptural prisms which are suspended from the entrance ceiling as if exploding from the ceramic mural. Two of these, the crescent and the track, are flat. There is a folded plane and three models in three-dimensional form including the cylinder, cube and sphere. The sculptures are fabricated from bronze, brass, aluminum, steel, and polished stainless steel.

The north entrance at Hunter Street hosts the final sculpture in the sequence. It is a Möbius sculpture suspended in the vast station entrance hall, welcoming customers, marking the space, and inspiring wonder. The Möbius sculpture is made of polished stainless steel and represents an endless, enigmatic form chosen to echo the continual tide of people moving through the transit space below.

The mural and hanging sculptures interact with each other, the spaces of transit and the travel experience. Their enigmatic geometric forms offer a poetic and abstract representation of space and time as experienced through travel. They stimulate curiosity and engagement and create memorable meeting points.

Shelter of Hollows, conceptually and formally links to Continuum and is suspended in the public through-site link which leads to the new Macquarie Office building.

Geelong Contemporary Art Prize

Congratulations to School of Art finalists in the 2024 Geelong Contemporary Art Prize: Natasha Bieniek (alumnus), Euan Heng (alumnus),  Steven Rendall (staff), Viv Miller (staff) and Louise Weaver (Adjunct Senior Industry Fellow), 

The 2024 Geelong Contemporary Art Prize continues a long tradition of acquisitive award exhibitions presented by the Gallery, through which the permanent collection has grown substantially. 

2024 Geelong Contemporary Art Prize
Geelong 
10 August 2024 – 3 November 2024

Image: Steven Rendall. Figures in the grounds of other figures in the figures of other grounds, 2022
oil on linen, 157 x 197cm
Courtesy Niagara Galleries

Image: AR Fieldwork site visit at Agnes Denes’ A Forest for Australia

Dr Fiona Hillary and Dr Rebecca Najdowski 

Dr Fiona Hillary and Dr Rebecca Najdowski received an Adobe x Creative Curriculum Grant to develop the pilot project Immersive Environmental Learning with Augmented Reality for Semester 2, 2024. This project integrated AR technology into the master’s course Posthumanism and Creative Practice in the Climate Crisis. Students explored the site of Agnes Denes' "A Forest for Australia" at the Altona Water Treatment Plant using Adobe Aero to rethink approaches to creative fieldwork and practice. The project featured a program of artist talks, technical workshops, and two site visits, allowing students to develop both conceptual understanding and practical skills in AR technology. 

Ben Howe

Congratulations to RMIT School of Art alumnus Ben Howe who was announced as the winner of the the winner of the 2024 $50,000 Richard Lester Prize for Portraiture.

Judges' note provided by Rex Butler, Alec Coles OAM, Hannah Mathews:

Ben Howe's Cartagena Library reminded the selection committee of the German artist Hans Holbein's The Ambassadors (1533). It's a portrait of two self-possessed men sitting in a library staring confidently at the viewer, surrounded by the finer things of life. But the twist is that they are not the usual inhabitants of the room but playing a role. They are two gay men portrayed as their straight friends in a room that is not theirs. (The judges hope they have got this right.) But it doesn't really matter. It's a beautifully done painting that remains permanently enigmatic like that great Holbein.

Image: Ben Howe, Cartagena library, 2023. Oil on panel, 50 x 60cm

mage: courtesy of Shane Hulbert

Associate Professor Shane Hulbert

Congratulations to Associate Professor Shane Hulbert on winning the Xposure International Photography Festival Global Focus Award, Sharjah, UAE. The project celebrates photographers from around the world, nominated to represent their continent (Oceania for Shane) and whose work explores relevant themes and ideas for their country.

Shane’s series Import/Export:Narratives and Myths in the Australian Landscape’ was selected by a panel of international photographers, picture editors and academics. The award was presented by Princess Al-Qasimi of the Sharjah Royal family.

Hyphenated Projects

Congratulations to Hyphenated Projects who were awarded an Asia Pacific Arts Award for Innovation by Creative Australia.

Co-directed by RMIT School of Art PhD alumnus Phuong Ngo and PhD candidate Nikki Lam, Hyphenated Projects is a multi-disciplinary space in Sunshine West, Melbourne. Situated in a suburban house, the space supports artists, producers and researchers through an on-going studio residency and development program.

The Asia Pacific Arts Awards recognise and promote Australian artists, collectives and organisations engaged in creating, and presenting/sharing work across Asia Pacific. These awards, to be held annually, celebrate cultural exchanges and collaborative partnerships with overseas counterparts.

The awards are being held for the first time by Creative Australia as an initiative of the Australian Government’s National Cultural Policy ‘Revive’.

Photo: Nick Orloff

Image: courtesy of Pia Johnson

Dr Pia Johnson

Congratulations to Dr Pia Johnson who is one of 16 women to be selected for the 2024 Women of Colour Executive Leadership Program.

Run in partnership by the Victorian Government and Women of Colour Australia, the four-month program is a comprehensive, culturally responsive program that aims to equip Women of Colour leaders with the skills, knowledge, and networks to help develop and advance their careers. 

Pia is a visual artist, photographer and lecturer. Her practice-led research is engaged in performance, cultural identity and belonging, stemming from her mixed background of Chinese Italian-Australian descent.

Milla Morgan

This Melbourne Art Tram was designed by Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art) — Drawing student Milla Morgan (Wiradjuri/Yorta Yorta) and it hit the tracks in June earlier this year. Titled I just wanted to say sorry, Milla’s artwork attempts to reframe perceptions of what First Nations art looks like by creating an honest reflection.

Keep an eye out for it on routes 1, 6 and 19 and find it on the tramTRACKER app by searching Tram #5002.

Curated by Master of Arts (Art in Public Space) alumnus Jarra Karalinar Steel (Boon Wurrung/Wemba Wemba) and presented by RISING in partnership with Public Transport Victoria, Yarra Trams and Creative Victoria.

Image: Milla Morgan,  I just wanted to say sorry, First Peoples Melbourne Art Trams, Rising 2024.
Photo: James Morgan

Image: Drew Pettifer with Omnia Art Prize judge Dr Rebecca Coates.

2024 Omnia Art Prize

Congratulations to Associate Professor Drew Pettifer who won the 2024 Omnia Art Prize for his work Untitled (Monte Punshon).

Pettifer worked with master weaver Pam Joyce to realise the piece — a tapestry portrait of Australian teacher and artist Monte Punshon. Punshon was a queer social activist who enjoyed wearing men’s suits and playing with gender. The photograph of Punshon that inspired Pettifer’s design was taken c.1930.

Pettifer’s choice of tapestry as a medium echoes forms of pixelisation from his primary media of photography and video, enhancing the gender ambiguity of the image. On winning the award Drew said, “My practice aims to make hidden or obscure queer histories visible. It’s wonderful to see important stories like these receive recognition with such an award.”

The Omnia Art Prize and Exhibition is one of Australia’s premier awards for contemporary art. The prestigious annual prize is open to established and emerging Australian contemporary artists, with all exhibited artworks for sale.

Congratulations to all finalists, many of whom were RMIT School of Art alumni.

Associate Professor Drew Pettifer

Associate Professor Drew Pettifer was awarded one of 13 college-wide Academic Development Program Fellowships for 2024, providing three months of research leave and a small stipend.

Drew used the funds to travel to queer museums and archives in Europe and Australia where he visited their collections and met with curatorial staff. His research is focused on how these institutions share obscured, erased, and under-represented minority histories when there are limited records and ephemera. Drew presented the initial findings of his research at a School of Art Research Seminar in November and at AAANZ Conference in December. 

Drew Pettifer was also awarded a Visiting Scholar Fellowship to the State Library of New South Wales in 2024, completing research into the creative project Pink Bans: When the Builders Laborers’ Federation stood up for queer rights.

The Library’s fellowship program, which celebrated its 50th anniversary this year, facilitates and supports the use of the Library's unique collections for sustained periods of study and research. Drew investigated two events in 1973–74 where the Builders Labourers’ Federation (BLF) took industrial action at Macquarie University in response to two homophobic administrative decisions.

His new creative works will be shown both in Australia and overseas in early 2026. 

Image: Drew Pettifer, Queer Britain installation view, August 2024

Image: Drew Pettifer, Untitled (BLF telegram), 2024

 

Image: Kat Rae with her winning artwork Deathmin

Kat Rae

Congratulations to BA (Fine Art) (Honours) student Kat Rae on winning the prestigious Napier Waller Art Prize 

Kat’s sculptural work challenges the ANZAC myth by powerfully unpacking the imprint of war on soldiers and their families. The work is created from the stack of admin she inherited after her veteran husband’s suicide in 2017. 

”Deathmin is Kat’s height and her late husband’s weight and, as the judges note, the “sculpture is a powerful evocation of the burden carried by so many families after the death by suicide of current and former service personal… it embodies the challenges attested to at the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide”.

The work was on display at Australian Parliament House, and selected from a shortlist of 17 highly commended entries. Kat received a $15,000 cash prize and her artwork will be added to the Australian War Memorial’s National Collection.

Thank you to the staff who have worked with Kat on the program, particularly Kat’s supervisor Dr Clare McCracken.

In addition, Kat won the Social Change Prize upon graduating from Honours this year.

Dr. Lynda Roberts and Adelaide Fisher

School of Art sessional lecturers Dr. Lynda Roberts and Adelaide Fisher were successful with their proposal for the RMIT City North Social Innovation Precinct (CNSIP) activation fund, securing approximately $15,000. 

Applying as Creative Student Life with the School of Arts (SoA) as an academic partner, the funding will support further development and testing of student public artwork proposals from the SoA Public Art Projects elective. The goal is to install these artworks throughout 2025 as part of a new RMIT City North Public Art Trail. 

Image: Embrace the Bright Side (2024) by Tin Chunting Wu.
Photo: Ashish Narwade

Image: Pia Johnson, Re-Orient, 2024 The exhibition featured a series of self-portraits taken in the Customs House in Melbourne Australia — a building of white colonial dominance – to explore post-colonial identity and migration. 

RMIT Award for Research Engagement and Impact (Early Career Researcher)

Congratulations to Dr Pia Johnson on receiving the RMIT Award for Research Engagement and Impact (Early Career Researcher)! The citation reads: "Exploring performance and cultural identity through photography, Dr Pia Johnson has significantly enriched the School of Art. Her work, influenced by her mixed Chinese and Italian Australian heritage, delves into issues of ethnicity and gender. At RMIT, she has fostered innovative artistic practices, engaging in cross-disciplinary projects and mentoring students, thereby enhancing the university's creative community and impact in the visual arts."

RMIT Award for Research Engagement and Impact (Open) Professor Philip Samartzis

Congratulations to Professor Philip Samartzis on receiving the RMIT Award for Research Engagement and Impact (Open). 

Through innovative sound art practices, Professor Philip Samartzis has significantly advanced the exploration of environmental conditions in remote wilderness regions. At RMIT, he has led projects like Super Field and Floe, fostering collaborations between art and architecture. His Antarctic field recordings have been integrated into major exhibitions, enriching the university’s reputation in contemporary art and environmental research. 

Image: Philip Samartzis recording glacial melt from the Giétro Glacier at the Mauvoisin Dam in Switzerland — one of the highest dams in the world.
Photo: Kristen Sharp

Sangeeta Sandraseger

Congratulations to sessional lecturer Sangeeta Sandrasegar who has been awarded the prestigious Monash University Prato Centre Visual Residency Program for 2024.

Sandrasegar’s research-based art practice builds visual narratives upon postcolonial and hybridity theory, her life in Australia and the relationship between migrant communities and homelands.

For her residency in Prato, Sandrasegar will expand upon recent works that focus on colour manufacture, researching Italian traditions of natural dye application, exploring European plants such as Isatis tinctoria, or woad, which produces the colour blue, and Rubia tinctorum, which produces the colour red, both of which play a leading role in the legacies of Italian art history and textiles.

Sangeeta Sandraseger's newly commissioned work Yellow deep that drew your eyes was shown at RACV ArtHouse, located on site at RACV Goldfields Resort.

Sandrasegar's latest work utilises botanical materials from the Creswick region, reflecting the region's history.

Kylie Stillman

RMIT School of Art alumnus and sessional lecturer Kylie Stillman’s Eucalypt is now installed  in the garden of Government House in Adelaide, on permanent loan form the  Art Gallery of SA collection.

Commissioned by Eucalypt Australia and La Trobe Art Institute for the 2019 Castlemaine State Festival, the work is made from recycled industrial plastic waste (HDPE).

Image: Kylie Stillman, Eucalypt, 2019
Hand-cut recycled HDPE sheeting and steel
240 x 240 x 30 cm
Collection of Art Gallery of South Australia

Image: Dr Maryam Safari (WRN Chair) and winner of the WRN Art Prize Lala Zarei with her graduating work.
Photo: Isabella Capezio

RMIT Women's Research Network (WRN) Art Prize 2024

Dr Fleur Summers and Isabella Capezio ran the WRN Art Prize in 2024. This is a yearly prize (first offered in 2023) only open to School of Art students. This year, students were asked to explore the themes that exemplify the WRN: gender equality, empowering women in research and building diversity. 

WINNERS + COMMENDATIONS 
First prize ($500): To the Sky with Hopes and Dreams by Lala Zarei (MFA) 
Second prize ($250): defiant by Maryam Attar Bashi Aj Bisheh (MFA) 
Third prize ($100): Weapon by Xiao Liang (PhD) 
Commendation 1: Seaside Tribute by Emma Ballinger (BFA printmaking) 
Commendation 2: Erosion by Larissa Linnell (BFA ceramics) 
Commendation 3: Selley’s Handyman Guide to Homemaking by Olivia Summerhayes (BFA drawing) 

Chiara Zeta

Congratulations to BA (Fine Art) (Honours) alumnus Chiara Zeta who was awarded the Monee Valley Mayoral Award for her work Un/believable 2 exhibited as part of the Incinerator Art Award: Art for Social Change.

Photo: courtesy of Drey Willows

 

Global Intensives

 
 

China Art and Photography Global Intensive

21 June – 5 July , 2024 
Shanghai—Xian—Beijing 

The ‘China Art & Photography Global Intensive’ was held for the first time in June-July, 2024. Students studied the multifaceted and dynamic aspects of contemporary and ancient Chinese art and culture through their travels, with these experiences informing the creation of artwork. In Shanghai, students collaborated with East China Normal University students in workshops and toured arts precincts. In Xi’an students focused on the ancient cultural history visiting heritage sites and museums such as the Terracotta Warriors. In Beijing, students were privileged with visiting the 798 Art District and the studios of artists Xu Bing, Zeng Fanzhi and Shen Na with local curator Catherine Shi. The course was led by Associate Professor Shane Hulbert and Senior Lecturer/International Co-ordinator Dr Tammy Wong Hulbert, both with an ongoing research interest in contemporary Chinese art and photography.

Photo: Jazmina Cininas

Japan Global Intensive

15 June – 29 June 2024
Aoshima—Teshima—Kyoto—Tokyo—Higashichichibu

For the second year running, a group of RMIT School of Art students escaped the Melbourne winter for balmy Japan on a two-week study tour, recording their impressions in hand-bound retchousou sketchbooks.
 
Stops included the art island of Naoshima where we stayed in seaside yurts and cycled through ancient fishing villages to various museums with stops for obligatory group photos in front of Yayoi Kusama's iconic pumpkins along the way.
 
In Kyoto, we meandered ancient streets and temples and world-class contemporary museums, including the netsuke museum with its miniature marvels. 
 
In the tranquil village of Higashi Chichibu we slept on tatami mats in traditional accommodation at Washi no Sato, overlooking a Japanese garden with koi pond. Our days were filled learning wood-block printing and paper making from local masters and our evenings watching fireflies.
 
Tokyo activities included a mandatory visit to the Mori Museum and a memorable karaoke send-off. Sugoi!

 

Graduate Exhibitions

 
 

Image: work by Jade Power winner of Fiona & Sidney Myer Ceramic Art Award and Stockroom Kyneton — Exhibition Award.
Photo: Janelle Low

Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art) Graduate Exhibition 2024

BA Photography, Photography & Art Honours, and Masters Graduate Exhibition 2024

With projects by hundreds of emerging artists and photographers, our recent 2024 Graduate Exhibitions celebrated the innovation and creative expertise of students across all art and photography programs.

The accompanying Graduate Profiles website documents the making and thinking behind their work.

Congratulations to our graduates and staff involved. They were stunning exhibitions with ambitious and strong installations across our Art and Photography programs.

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to our donors for their generous support and the prizes you have provided for our graduating students.

 

Exhibitions — Partnered

 
 

Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art) Hong Kong Graduate Exhibition

The 2024 Hong Kong Graduate Exhibition for the Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art), Ephemeral, opened on Friday the 5th of July. Graduating students presented work across painting, ceramics, photography, sculpture, video, and installation. Professor Kit Wise, Dean, School of Art, officially launched the exhibition and spoke alongside outgoing BA (Fine Art) Program Lead, Associate Professor Drew Pettifer, at the opening. The graduate exhibition reflects the culmination of three years of dedicated study with RMIT and our long-standing partner institution, Hong Kong Art School.

Image: courtesy of Hong Kong Program Manager Simon Wan

Here’s Something I’ve Been Wanting To Show You

This exhibition brought together a group of RMIT's Gold and Silversmithing alumni who completed the Bachelor of Arts, Honours, Masters, PhD programs and Blak Design mentored workshops at RMIT from 2018 to the present, showcasing works that reflect a diverse range of experiences and personal journeys. These artists all studied just prior and during the unique and challenging times of the pandemic, and the exhibition marked the first time many of these objects were publicly presented. Perhaps due to the nature of the circumstances in which they were made, these works often revealed private moments and shared deep reflections. As a collection of works, Here's Something I've Been Wanting to Show You made manifest and showcased the innovative practices, solidarity and caring relationships that underpin RMIT's Gold and Silversmithing studios.

The exhibition at RMIT Design Hub Gallery, curated by Mark Edgoose, Kirsten Haydon, Cathy Doe, and Sarah Lockey, and accompanying website and catalogue, designed by Gracia Haby and Louise Jennison, with a catalogue essay by Michaela Pegum, communicates how creativity, community and art come together—an ongoing conversation that continues to shape the future of this collective.

rmitgandsalumniexhibition.com/exhibition
Here's Something I've Been Wanting to Show You catalogue download

This Hideous Replica

Lifting its title from a misheard line in a 1980 song by The Fall about a reclusive dog breeder whose ‘hideous replica’ haunts industrial Manchester, this experimental project—an admixture of artworks, performances, screenings, workshops, a ‘replica school’ and other uncanny encounters—adopts monstrous replication as a tactic, condition, and curatorial framework for exploring algorithmic culture, simultaneously alienating, seductive and out-of-control. 

The exhibition at RMIT Gallery included work by RMIT School of Art alumnus Diego Ramírez, Debris Facility, Heath Franco & Matthew Griffin, Josh Citarella, Liang Luscombe, Mochu, Masato Takasaka, Anna Vasof, Loren Adams, Amy May Stuart and more. Performances and presentations by RMIT School of Art technical officer Ceri Hann, Jennifer Walshe, McKenzie Wark, Tomomi Adachi, Joel Spring, Chloe Sobek, Catherine Ryan, Sophie Penkethem Young, dogmilk collective, Omniversal Hum, and more. Curated by RMIT alumnus Joel Stern (RMIT) and Sean Dockray (Monash).

This Hideous Replica was produced by RMIT Culture and supported by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (ADM+S) and the RMIT Design and Creative Practice Enabling Impact Platforms. This project was part of the City of Melbourne’s Now or Never festival.

 

Exhibitions – Solo

 
 

Image: Rushdi Anwar, When the World Pushes You to Your Knees, You’re in the Perfect Position to Pray, digital print photography on paper, 2023. Installation view by Amin Yousefi, courtesy Ab-Anbar Gallery. 

Rushdi Anwar

RMIT School of Art alumnus Rushdi Anwar's exhibition Endless Tears in the Garden of Eden is now showing at  De Thomas in Amsterdam. 

Every work of art by Rushdi Anwar (1971, Halabja, Iraqi Kurdistan) begins with a story: a story that connects the present with the past and with the hope for a better future. The exhibition Endless Tears in the Garden of Eden also refers to paradise, the Garden of Eden. 

Anwar tells stories that have their origins in historical Kurdistan. An area where various cultures and religions lived together for a long time, including Yazidi, Shabak, Assyrians, various Christian movements and Arab Muslims. This was until the Sykes-Picot Treaty in 1916, with just a few strokes of the pen, drew the borders through the Southwest Asian part of the Ottoman Empire and divided it into French and British spheres of influence. This laid the foundation for a century of struggle, conflict and uprisings within and between states in this region, the Middle East. 

With his work, Anwar draws attention to this history and to the endless conflicts that arise in the area where he comes from, Iraqi Kurdistan. He draws attention to the way in which the area and the age-old cultures and religions relate to the world of today. He does this with a view to the future and with glimmers of hope for a world of transnational connection. 

From 3 December 2024 to 21 January 2025, visitors can experience three works of art by Rushdi Anwar in the impressive church hall of De Thomas. The exhibition consists of two large art installations and a sound work with sculpture. 

De Thomas, Prinses Irenestraat 36, Amsterdam 
3 December 2024 – 21 January 2025 

D A Calf

D A Calf exhibited Spectres I, a three-channel video installation at Kings Artist-Run (Naarm, Oct–Nov). 

What happens when we listen to a space with which we have previous experience, and one separated in time? How can we think of the experience elicited through this process as being precipitated by sounds laying dormant in a site? 

In Spectres I, an elderly couple recall their childhood recollections of a series of monuments forged at the time to bolster the narrative of a new nation, but which have since been challenged. Relating memories separated in both time and space, and focusing on the remembered sounds of these sites, the work investigates the slippage of time and memory, through temporal and spatial transposition. The speakers, like the monuments, are always off-screen. Only the wider monument sites are visible — where they merge with the landscape, are co-opted by other agencies, and where their intended purposes become problematic or ignored.

Image: D A Calf, Spectres, 2024. Installation view. Photograph: Sebastian Kainey

Photography by Simon Strong

Dr Vittoria Di Stefano

Lecturer Dr Vittoria Di Stefano had a recent solo exhibition at Linden New Art. Pears on a Willow was the culmination of 12 months of research undertaken as part of Linden’s JUNCTURE Art Prize awarded in 2023.
 
Pears on a Willow was a site-specific sculptural installation that explored the poetics of domestic spaces and their embedded histories. The work was a result of Di Stefano’s research into two historical narratives: that of the Linden site itself, a family home originally built for Jewish immigrant Moritz Michaelis in the nineteenth century; and the journey of the artist’s own Polish grandparents, who emigrated to Australia after the Second World War. While these two histories differ in circumstance and timeframe, their stories intertwine and overlap in their discussion of trauma, perseverance, survival and love. 

Dr Richard Harding

Honorary University Fellow Dr Richard Harding had a recent exhibition Moving in Circles at Megalo Print Studio in Canberra

Moving in Circles presented a selection of past and recent printworks from the studio archives of Richard Harding. Ranging from figurative expressionist woodcuts to photographic screen prints, these artworks highlighted ongoing topics of concern from nuclear disarmament to human rights focusing on various LGBTQIA+ positions—local and global with visual political questions for viewers to reflect on.

Moving in Circles leant into the inherent qualities of print: sameness, difference and repetition. Harding aligned the act of printing images with the ongoing social struggles and protests of marginalised LGBTQIA+ people here and around the world.

Image: Richard Harding, Wardrobe Act 1: Bear, 2013

Image: Kyoko Imazu, Red Gum, 2024, papercut, 27cm x 25cm

Kyoko Imazu

Technical officer Kyoko Imazu had a solo exhibition, Imaginary gardens with real toads in them, recently at Australian Galleries in Melbourne. 

Inspired by Marianne Moore’s “Poetry” which explores what makes a genuine poem, Kyoko Imazu’s exhibition of intricate papercuts invites us into stories teeming with life. Her meticulous craftwork celebrates the natural world, from towering River Red gums to elusive native orchids. Each papercut is linked as one, despite including multiple components such as unseen features like root systems, small invertebrates, and the intricate processes of food webs. This interconnectivity of the pieces further reflects the concepts of linkages in ecology.

Dr Pia Johnson

Master of Photography Program Manager Dr Pia Johnson's exhibitions Re-Orient: Reclaiming Spaces, Redefining Stories at the Immigration Museum in Melbourne and An Uncertain Grasp at Stockroom in Kyneton finished recently.

Re-Orient is a series of self-portraits taken in the Customs House in Melbourne Australia — a building of white colonial dominance — to explore post-colonial identity and migration.

An Uncertain Grasp explores the notions of identity and home within the Australian landscape. Using a phenomenological and performance based method, Pia’s photographs speak to histories past and present, and the possibility of new stories to come. 

Dr Laresa Kosloff

Dr Laresa Kosloff presented five of her Super 8 film works at Buxton Contemporary in the exhibition, The same crowd never gathers twice curated by Annika Aitken. The exhibition included a symposium convened by Dr Cate Consandine, exploring moving image culture and embodied affect. Laresa delivered an artist lecture and participated in a panel discussion. 

In March, Laresa presented a solo exhibition of her stock footage films at Benalla Art Gallery as part of PHOTO2024.

In September, Laresa premiered her latest short film, titled The Bleaching at the e-Flux screening room in New York City. This critical short film uses stock footage to explore hegemonic systems, including white supremacy, the military-industrial complex and the billionaire class. ‘The Bleaching’ was exhibited in Naarm at Sutton Gallery in October.

Laresa’s work is currently included in the 11th Asia Pacific Triennial at QAGOMA, which runs from 30 November 2024 – 27 April 2025. She was commissioned by Ellie Buttrose to create a new series of broadcast audio announcements throughout GOMA. This ongoing series explores institutional directives, subjectivity, language and the civic function of art.

Sonia Leber and David Chesworth

Sonia Leber and David Chesworth’s audio-video artwork Shapes of Listening (2024) is an evolving project that explores the act of listening across the water and forest ecologies of Gurambilbarra/Townsville in QLD, Wollemi National Park in NSW, and future fieldwork sites. 

The first iteration of the project was exhibited by Umbrella Arts at Dancenorth in Gurambilbarra/Townsville during July and August. Shapes of Listening was developed through a BigCi artist residency supported by the BigCi Environmental Award, a residency with Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts in Gurambilbarra/Townsville, and funding from Creative Victoria and Creative Australia.  

Using unique camera choreographies imbued with an ‘acoustic consciousness’, Leber and Chesworth capture a range of species and people investigating the environment, utilising sensing, tactile techniques, specialist microphones (hydrophones, microbat detectors and contact sensors), and speculative approaches to uncover various presences and hidden forces. Sonia and David are Adjunct Senior Industry Fellows in the School of Art. 

Image: Sonia Leber and David Chesworth, Shapes of Listening, 2024, 2-channel 4K video, 5.1 audio, 19 minutes. Video still courtesy of the artists. This project has been supported by Creative Victoria and Creative Australia. 

Kerrie Poliness

Non-Objec­tive Wild­flow­ers at Anna Schwartz Gallery presented sessional lecturer Ker­rie Poli­ness’ recent inves­ti­ga­tions into the for­mal sym­me­tries of par­al­lel­o­gram geome­tries, seri­al­i­ty and rep­e­ti­tion. This new body of work con­veyed both the phys­i­cal and meta­phys­i­cal rem­nants of native wild­flow­ers scat­tered across the Vic­to­ri­an Vol­canic Plains and the kalei­do­scop­ic res­o­nance of their presence. 

Poli­ness retraced the loss and mem­o­ry of this wild veg­e­ta­tion, threat­ened with extinc­tion, through the trans­la­tion of ener­getic colour fields as a net­work of inter­con­nect­ed struc­tures, into an opti­cal cadence and per­cep­tu­al dif­frac­tion. As the artist explains: ​“The ​‘Sun­shine Diuris’, an orchid once known as ​‘Snow in the Pad­dock’ belongs to a colour world of tiny flow­ers and plants that have a par­tic­u­lar res­o­nance and ener­gy which is rapid­ly dis­ap­pear­ing. These paint­ings though, are non-objec­tive, not rep­re­sen­ta­tions of indi­vid­ual plants or flow­ers, rather an attempt to recall their visu­al magic.” 

Now showing at Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Kerrie Poliness' work Black O (1997) is a conceptual artwork, existing as a set of detailed step-by-step instruction booklets for six abstract wall drawings, as well as a general manual that describes materials, tools, timeframes, technical notes, and other details required to install the work. The process is based on three important skills: the ability to understand the instructions, the ability to guess, and the ability to make accurate measurements and draw lines using a straight edge.

Hand drawn directly onto the wall with two different sizes of black poster markers, the drawings can be installed by single or multiple collaborators. They are scaled to specific sites, depending on their location in the Gallery. While the work exists as a set of instructions, these incorporate the interpretation and skills of those installing it. This, combined with the need for the work to be responsive and adapted to a particular site, means that each drawing is ‘slightly’ different every time it is installed. Just as leaves on a tree are the same but slightly different, Poliness’ drawing systems reflect systems of mass production found in nature and materiality.

Black O x 3
Big Wall, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, New Zealand
27 July 2024 – 26 January 2025

 

Exhibitions — Group

 
 

Birrarung Riverfest

Birrarung River Fest celebrated the life force of our Yarra, Birrarung river with over 30 events hosted over three weeks. Whether you enjoyed riverside walks, cleanups or paddling adventures, there was something for everyone at Riverfest, including RMIT School of Art PhD candidates: Christine McFetridge’s exhibition closing and reading of An Inconvenient Curve: Unlearning Settler Colonial Representations of Birrarung and Deb Fisher’s River Bloom environmental installations.

Christine McFetridge’s exhibition at the Library at the Dock Gallery combined archival material, photography, video and text, aiming to attend to the violence of the ongoing colonial regime. Deb Fisher’s Jewellery for Birrarung explored the ongoing human disregard and indifference to the river through the creation of an artwork made from over 3000 tennis balls collected from the river over the last year.

Characters

Characters at Haydens Gallery was a group exhibition featuring a selection of Australia’s leading conceptual drawing practitioners. The artists included sessional lecturer Kerrie Poliness alongside Mira Gojak, Agatha Gothe-Snape, Julie Irving, Amalia Lindo and Mia Salsjö.

Traversing diverse themes such as automatism, connectivity, performativity, and translation, Characters visualises ideas as material. Taking form in a variety of mediums, these drawn works are characteristic of fixed points in time. What we see is a trace, or an artifact of a specific culmination of events, and in some cases the act of interpreting this residue is the focus of interest. What is seen is the result of a sustained engagement in drawing as a method of communicating beyond language.

Image: Kerrie Poliness, Whoosh Version 5 (with magenta and green), 2024
Graphic Film on Wall

Image: Installation view PCA Gallery, left Ruth Johnstone, Forest Walking and right Lesley Duxbury, Out of Time
Photo: Lesley Duxbury 

Embrace the Eucalypt

Emeritus Professor Lesley Duxbury and alumnus and former staff member Ruth Johnstone continued their exploration and cultural significance of the eucalypt through 2024. They held an exhibition at Benalla Gallery, Embrace the Eucalypt, 17 May – 28 July, where they also gave a well-attended artist talk and an exhibition of new works, Re-embracing the Eucalypt, at the Print Council of Australia Gallery throughout August.

The propensity of the ubiquitous eucalypt for fuelling raging bushfires and yet surviving to a great age are examples of the contradictions that are the focus of their explorations realised in large and small-scale photographs, artist books and constructions.

Exquisite Sites

Exquisite Sites was a collaborative printmaking project by Justas Pipinis (PhD candidate) and Brendan Cooper (Master of Fine Art student) at art Trax Gallery in Beaufort.
 
What makes a site? Loosely inspired by the surrealist game of Exquisite Corpse, two artists take turns inscribing, (re-)etching and printing the same copper plates. The first person making a mark on a new plate chooses the site, and after that, all additions to the plate must represent the same site using different methods. After each round, one-third of the plate is chopped off, excluding it from further alterations. 

Image: Justas Pipinis (ft. Brendan Cooper) Exquisite Site 2 (Queen Victoria Market) State III, 2024
Copper etching on Hahnemühle 350 gsm, 40x40

Image: Maggie McCormick, The Human Garden, 2024. Pen on photographic paper. 1990cm H x 1980cm.

The Human Garden

The Human Garden 2024 in The Secret Art Lounge #4 was a three-person exhibition with Adjunct Professor Maggie McCormick, Elisabeth Weissensteiner and alumnus Chris Bold, Carlton Studio, Melbourne, Australia. The work explored nature as a form of thinking about human consciousness through three linked art series — ‘Re-vealing Secrets of Mental Life’, ‘Re-mapping Flights of Butterflies’, Re-planting Trees of Knowledge’.

Immaculate Dust

Associate Professor Michael Graeve and Associate Professor Dominic Redfern had an exhibition Immaculate Dust at RUN ARTIST RUN in the Docklands.

Noise and fidelity moving towards loss but increase of each other. Crossings along lines of signal misapprehended. Colouring of screens rendered adjacent, planes of tonality upended. Weightless distortion, constructed gravities, captives to slipping.

"Michael & I were so pleased to be able to work with Yongping Ren and Ben Woods during the first year of RUN ARTIST RUN’s operation. The experience was a delight from start to finish. Watch out for this gallery!”

Image: courtesy of PhD candidate, Ming Liew.

Image: Kerrie Poliness, SMOB (silver, magenta, orange, blue) 2021
Graphic film on wall 
dimensions variable

Infinite: Dobell Australian Drawing Biennial 2024

Through the work of ten artists from around Australia, the 2024 edition of the Dobell Australian Drawing Biennial focuses on the compelling and allusive languages of abstraction.

Alumnus Cameron Robbins (VIC), sessional lecturer Kerrie Poliness (VIC), Matthew Allen (NSW), Helen Eager (NSW), Emma Fielden (NSW), the late Ngarralja Tommy May (WA), Ceara Metlikovec (NSW), Sandra Selig (QLD), Kate Vassallo (ACT) and Savanhdary Vongpoothorn (ACT) share an abstract aesthetic and preoccupation with the mediums, methods and formal possibilities of drawing. Their concerns include the role of technology and of collaboration, the forces of nature and rhythms of the body, chance versus the urge to control, repetition and gesture, and the telling of stories of culture and Country.

The works selected for this exhibition look at the implication of the artist’s hand – its presence or absence – and questions of materials and pictorial space. They vary from hand-drawn graphite, coloured pencil and ink on paper, to collaborative wall and floor drawings, works made using the power of the sun, and works that extend beyond two dimensions.

Infinite: Dobell Australian Drawing Biennial 2024
Art Gallery of New South Wales
14 September 2024 – 12 January 2025

Melbourne Focus

Melbourne Focus at the 2024 Pingyao International Photography Festival represented a significant milestone in cultural exchange between Australia and China. Co-curated by Bronisław Kózka and Shane Hulbert, the exhibition showcased the strength of RMIT University's photography discipline, with a majority of featured photographers being RMIT alumni. 

The exhibition, held from September 17–23, brought together diverse photographic practices from Melbourne's leading photographers including Dean Golja, James Morgan, Emma Phillips, Haydn Cattach, and Cristina Mariani, among others. Their work spanned various genres, from architectural and food photography to performance and cultural documentation.

Beyond the exhibitions, the program included panel discussions on emerging technologies in photography, particularly AI's impact on creative practices. The festival facilitated valuable networking opportunities with international photography leaders, including Thomas Kellner (Germany), Jim Ramer (Parsons, USA), and Moshe Rosenzveig (Head On, Australia), establishing pathways for future collaborations between Melbourne and global photography communities.

Photo Credit: Image by Bronislaw Kozka, showing the work of Pia Johnson and Haydn Cattach

Gracia Haby & Louise Jennison
Restoring corridors (detail)
2024
12 double-sided image panel artists’ book with 5 text pages, inkjet print on Canson Arches 88 310gsm, with accompanying narrative, A good soft release site is a connected site (by Gracia Haby), housed in a box with original watercolour cover (by Louise Jennison) on Saunders Waterford Aquarelle 300gsm white hot-press paper
Printed by Arten
Edition of 4

National Works on Paper 2024

Alumni Gracia Haby and Louise Jennison’s multi-panelled, double-sided artists’ book, Restoring corridors, was one of 70 shortlisted works, from over 1000 entries, recently exhibited as part of the National Works on Paper 2024 at Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery (31 August – 24 November).

Restoring corridors was launched at the tenth Melbourne Art Book Fair, NGV International (23 –26 May). The artists’ book forms an interchangeable, reversible 100cm x 300cm slice of biodiversity in flux, when hung on the wall. Housed within an original hand-painted watercolour box, it can be viewed as individual, abstract leaves. Within the box, each 50cm x 50cm leaf features a rich, biodiverse habitat, on one side, and a fractured habitat, on the reverse side.

Gracia and Louise invite you, as the reader, to choose: do you actively participate and contribute to biodiversity restoration or allow for habitat to be isolated, further dissected by human pressures? Because all things are connected, you can, piece by leaf, connect and strengthen green corridors to habitat, ensuring biodiversity can flourish. This act of regeneration can be read in multiple states of growing, as wild animals return and pollinators thrive. Depending upon where you begin, you can ‘read’ the landscape as a fractured one that you help restore, or as biodiverse landscape that is being made into smaller and smaller islands by human activity.

Read the accompanying words to Restoring corridors, A good soft release site is a connected site, on Marginalia, and listen to Gracia and Louise discussing Restoring corridors and wildlife as part of Bird’s Eye View: Perspectives on the Art and Science of Ornithology, presented as part of Melbourne Rare Book Week 2024, in a recording of their conversation with Dr Karen Rowe, Rebecca Carland, and John Kean, at the Melbourne Museum.

Public Art Trail​

School of Art sessional academics Adelaide Fisher and Dr Lynda Roberts presented a walking tour of student artworks as part of The art of assessment: Co-creating the RMIT Public Art Trail​ at this year's Learning & Teaching Festival: It takes a village... to do assessment in September.  

For more information about the presentation: Festival Day 5: Friday, 13 September 2024

Image courtesy Adelaide Fisher and Lynda Roberts

Image: Benjamin Sheppard, SMT… (New Holland Honey Eater 1) 2024
Archival inks on paper
30 x 44 cm (2 parts)

Puff paper IV: Works on paper by Zoe Amor, Catherine Pilgrim, David Golightly & Benjamin Sheppard 

Drawing Lecturer Benjamin Sheppard was recently invited to exhibit in Puffpaper IV — the fourth of Artpuff’s annual celebration of works on paper in Castlemaine.  

Alongside the ghostly historical drawings of Catherine Pilgrim, Zoe Amor's impressive atmospheric landscapes and David Golightly's curious paper experiments, Sheppard's works deftly accumulate a fury of marks into roiling thought scapes that are punctuated by the clarity of beautifully illustrated local birdlife.

Performing Selves Across Histories

Performing Selves Across Histories brings together work by Clare McCracken and Pia Johnson that explore the consequences of migration and mobility on the formation of identity. Pia's work uses performance to challenge the architecture of imperialism — built by white men for white men — and make visible the body of a woman of colour, an identity commonly missing from mainstream settler-colonial narratives. Similarly, Clare uses performance to render visible 144 years of women’s largely undocumented oceanic participation and their invisible enduring role in global seafaring, economics and adventure.

The work showed at the biennial contemporary art exhibition Personal Structures — Beyond Boundaries in the historical venue Palazzo Mora in Venice, Italy (20 April – 24 November).

Image:The Place Between: Orlando Floats by Clare McCracken with Andrew Ferris, 2018. 4K, colour, infinite loop.

Photography by Beth Arnold with CACP Network. Documentation of workshop for Relational Ecologies Laboratory, 2024 

Relational Ecologies Laboratory

The Relational Ecologies Laboratory currently on show at ACCA as part of their exhibition The Charge that Binds (7 December – 16 March 2025). The Lab is presented by Climate Aware Creative Practices (CACP) Network members and artists Clare McCracken (RMIT), Katie Lee (Deakin), Mark Friedlander (VCA), Beth Arnold and Terri Bird (Monash) with CACP curator Bronwyn Bailey-Charteris.

The laboratory is a relational artwork staged over the three months of the exhibition, in which network members build an inventory and do what climate aware artists do best: work across precarious platforms, sharing, reworking, collaborating and understanding the materiality of artistic circular economies. The lab can be thought of as a sculptural work, a residency, an incubator and a publicly focused exhibition working space.  

This project is supported by; the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria; RMIT University; Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, University of Melbourne; Deakin University, Public Exchange Bureau and Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture at Monash University.

SCHMUCK UEBER ALLES, JELLY ALL OVER 

Emeritus Professor Robert Baines will be showing work in a jewellery exhibition event with Gerd Rothmann and Karl Fritsch.  

Membership, jewellery group, an iteration of Perception: “Whenever someone who knows you disappears, you lose one version of yourself. Yourself as you were seen, as you were judged to be………..”
Salman Rushdie, The Ground Beneath Her Feet

Gallery Loupe 
Donnerstag, 29 February 2024
ONE NIGHT ONLY 
Hildebrand Haus/Monascensia Library, Munich 

Image: Robert Baines, MEMBERSHIP 2023, silver, electroplate, lacquer, photography by Joanne Minariti 

Image: Kerrie Poliness, Non-Objective Wildflower Painting, brown on black with pink, purple, yellow, white and black lines, 2023 
acrylic paint on canvas 
197 x 200 cm 
Photo: Christian Capurro 

The Sweet Spot — Between Art & Design 

This diverse selection of works comprising recent acquisitions to Geelong Gallery’s collection test the nexus between art and design and reflect the Gallery’s evolving strategy and growing commitment to exhibit and collect the works of key practitioners working at the tantalising and experimental intersection of art and design.  

From crafted wood and woven grasses, to forged metal and pinned textiles, these objects transcend their materiality and the process of making to become works of art. The Sweet Spot — Between Art and Design includes works by sessional lecturer Kerrie Poliness, Maree Clarke, Tammy Gilson, Helmut Lueckenhausen, David McDiarmid, Neil Roberts, Louise Saxton, and Blanche Tilden, among others.  

The Sweet Spot — Between Art and Design
Geelong Gallery 
Little Malop Street, Geelong  
16 November 2024 – 9 February 2025 

Visionary: Recent Donations to the McClelland Collection

Continuing in the spirit in which McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery was gifted to the community in 1971, McClelland's renowned collection of Australian and international sculpture has been shaped in large part by the vision of a large circle of generous donors. Visionary: Recent Donations to the McClelland Collection showcased a range of extraordinary works which have come into the collection over recent years.

Featuring works from alumnus Sanne Mestrom and sessional lecturer Kerrie Poliness alongside Rick Amor, George Baldessin, Geoffrey Bartlett, Lauren Berkowitz, Peter Corlett, Lawrence English, Erwin Fabian, Fiona Foley, Mark Galea, Mira Gojak, Kenneth Hood, Vincas Jomantas, Julius Kane, Anne-Marie May, John Nixon and Scott Redford

Visionary: Recent Donations to the McClelland Collection at McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery finished recently (30 March – 17 November).

Image: Kerrie Poliness, Back & Forth (2018–2022)
(still: video S > Q (Sorrento to Queenscliffe) 2018
4 x videos & painting

Image: Wild Country by Clare McCracken and Heather Hesterman 2024. Photography by Andrew Ferris, costume construction by Xander Reichard.

Wild Country: the Ovens River and its Tributaries

Through documentation of performative fieldwork, creative writing, and participatory practice, Wild Country explored the historical, cultural, and social importance of the Ovens River and its tributaries. With impressive granite rocks and majestic river red gums, the picturesque river network makes it a much-loved recreational site for camping, swimming, paddling, and fishing. Yet historical and current-day ecological impacts through mining, agriculture, and climate change have indelibly altered its landscape.

Wild County explored the river's complex political, social, cultural, economic, and ecological history and its meaning to the community.

Wild Country: the Ovens River and its Tributaries by Lecturer Clare McCracken and Sessional Lecturer Heather Hesterman, supported by Andrew Ferris, Scarlet Sykes Hesterman and Xander Reichard, finished recently at Wangaratta Art Gallery (31 September – 3 November).

 

Research

 
 

Gaps Fit for Fabulation: Creative Speculation in the Fissures of the Archive

Associate Professor Drew Pettifer, sessional lecturer Laura McLean, and sessional lecturer and PhD candidate D A Calf recently published the article Gaps Fit for Fabulation: Creative Speculation in the Fissures of the Archive in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art. The paper considers how speculative approaches to the representation of marginalised histories, such as ‘parafiction’ and ‘sonic fictions’, constitute radical forms of recovery addressing ruptures, discontinuities and gaps in the historical record. 

Image: Self-portrait in ISO No. 2, by Pia Johnson, 2020

Dr Pia Johnson and Dr Clare McCracken

Dr Pia Johnson and Dr Clare McCracken published a chapter in a new cultural geography book Liminality, Transgression and Space Across the World edited by Basak Tanulku and Simone Pekelsma. 

The experimental chapter, Liminality When Grounded: Micro-mobilities in contemporary art practice during the COVID-19 pandemic, grew out of Australia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It brings together four artworks by artist-academics Pia Johnson and Clare McCracken made during the first two years of the pandemic.  As artist-academics, Pia and Clare are what Natalie Loveless calls ‘maker-thinkers’; through their art forms — photography, performance, creative writing and mixed-media art-making — they make sense of the world and conduct their research. Therefore, the artworks offer a critical lens into the pandemic’s social, cultural and gendered impacts. Grounded in the lived experience of extensive lockdowns, the experimental chapter reveals how Pia and Clare made works intuitively in small snippets of time carved out for themselves as a method to think through the pandemic. 

Linda Knight

We would also like to congratulate School of Art affiliate Associate Professor Linda Knight (RMIT) on her 2024 Research Excellence Award — Open. For epitomising RMIT's 'Knowledge with Action' strategy of research and innovation for impact by centralising and pushing the potential of artistic practice to tackle complex challenges and embedding art into projects focused on imaginative and inventive outcomes.

Since 2019, Linda has produced twenty-one peer-reviewed publications (2 books, ten journal papers, eight book chapters, and one review), thirty international creative practice works (20 group and solo exhibitions in Estonia, Australia, USA, NZ, Chile, and ten social art practice works in Finland, Australia, and the USA) and eight research projects totalling approximately $1.5M across category 1, 2, and 3 funding. 

Mapping Extinction II, 2023–2024
Through drawing practices, Mapping Extinction II creatively scrapes and translates Big Data on biodiversity and wildwood loss in the UK. The work comments on extractive factors, including capitalism, on ecological precarity. Linda was selected to exhibit in the #TARTU2024 European Festival of Culture program, which took place in Tartu, Estonia, in 2024. Mapping Extinction II was included in 'Missing', 23 August – 6 October, a group show at Tartu Art House, Estonia, with artists Ackroyd & Harvey, Justine Blau, Samuel Collins & Mo Langmuir, Alain Delorme, Katrin Gattinger, Elisa Gleize, Louise Gugi, Jayne Ivimey, Flo Kasearu & Elina Vitola, Diana Lelonek, Fiona Tan, Kristina Ollek & Kert Viiartat.

Image: Linda Knight, Mapping Extinction II, 2023–2024.
Drawings on paper encased in acrylic sheeting. 300 x 150 cm.
Photo: Christo Crocker

Image: Andrew J Clarke 

Kulininpalaju (We Are Listening)

Kulininpalaju is a multi-year partnership between Western Australian organisations Tura and Martumili Artists and the School of Art. Professor Philip Samartzis is the lead sound artist and facilitator of Kulininpalaju working closely with Tura affiliated sound artist Annika Moses over four years to explore the extensive possibilities of collective listening and recording of country and culture in collaboration with Martu artists and communities. Through on-Country creative development Professor Samartzis in consultation with Tura and Martumili Artists has honed a strong methodology for Martu-led intercultural collaboration in the creative sound art medium. This involves mentoring artists in sound recording and production, demonstrating compositional techniques and strategies, undertaking collective sound recording trips, and working cooperatively towards exhibition and performance outcomes. 

Professor Samartzis received the RMIT Research Award for Impact and Engagement for his contribution towards Kulininpalaju in recognition for his commitment to promoting respectful and inclusive partnerships, preserving cultural heritage, and encouraging intercultural dialogue and understanding. 

Kulininpalaju

Maggie McCormick

Adjunct Professor Maggie McCormick has an article ‘Carto-City to Surface-City: un-mapping and re-mapping the urban emotion of missing’ in Taien Ng-Chan, Nick Lally, Sharon Hayashi (eds), The Commission on Art & Cartography of the International Journal of Cartography, Vol 10. No 2. Taylor & Francis 2024 pp. 211–222.

Image: Daniel Palmer, Google Photos organising faces from photographs downloaded from Powerhouse Museum, Screenshot, 2024 

Museum Dialogues: Exhibiting, Collecting and Activating Photography

Professor Daniel Palmer gave a keynote lecture recently in the United Kingdom: ‘Search as Research, or, from Interface to Book: Activating Photography Collections in Australia’, invited keynote lecture at ‘Museum Dialogues: Exhibiting, Collecting and Activating Photography’, University of Sunderland, UK, 22–24 November 2024.

The paper focused on Dual/Duel a collaborative artist book by Brook Andrew and Trent Walter, with photographs drawn from the State Library of Victoria in Melbourne, and Daniel’s own collaboration with the artist Cherine Fahd at Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum, inspired by the logic of the online search interface.

Professor Daniel Palmer

Professor Daniel Palmer recently edited a special issues of the international journal Media Theory on the topic of 'Seeing Photographically' with co-editors Scott McQuire, Celia Lury, Jasmin Pfefferkorn and Emilie K. Sunde. The essays explore the impact of ‘generative AI’ on the photographic field and the challenges associated with theorizing photography. Palmer has an essay in the special issue co-written with Katrina Sluis from ANU titled  'The Automation of Style: Seeing Photographically in Generative AI'. Media Theory is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge.

Image: 'Seeing Photographically'

Video: Tai Kok Tsui — Phantasms for Future Ecologies Programme Trailer — Phantom by Mikala Dwyer 

Phantasms for Future Ecologies

Tai Kok Tsui, Hong Kong, January & July 2025 
In partnership between the Hong Kong Arts Centre 

Phantasms for Future Ecologies is a public artwork in the neighbourhood of Tai Kok Tsui comprising of a digital public artwork of local urban animals by Mikala Dwyer (January 2025), a community engaged ‘citizen-artist’ workshop for local youth by Tammy Wong Hulbert (January 2025) and a symposium on ‘Art and Future Ecologies’ by Kristen Sharp (June 2025).

This project is part of a broader urban renewal project led by Hong Kong Art Centre 'RE: Tai Kok Tsui' which considers how public art can connect local communities to place and heritage, stimulating dialogue and discussion about living sustainably. Phantasms will build opportunities for exchange between researchers at the Hong Kong Arts Centre (HKAC), RMIT University and evolving communities in Tai Kok Tsui, to build mutual understandings of sustainable urban futures. The Australian team were awarded an Australian Cultural Diplomacy Grant (2023–4) funding from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to support the development of this project. 

Professor Kit Wise

Dean, RMIT School of Art Professor Kit Wise was an invited speaker at the Australian Institute of Sport 2024 Performance Teams Forum in October 2024.

The inaugural Performance Teams Forum aimed to address a clear objective in our HP2032+ strategy, exploring what world-leading knowledge and practice looks like for integrated, high-functioning Performance Teams.

Image: courtesy of Kit Wise

 

Contemporary Art and Social Transformation group (CAST) 

 
 

Artist Talk Recap: Dr. Nguyen Thi Thu Ha & Võ Thanh Tiến

We recently hosted an inspiring event at First Site Gallery as part of the day/do project, celebrating the vibrant art and design scene in Vietnam! Dr. Nguyen Thi Thu Ha offered visionary perspectives on the future of Vietnamese art, while Vietnamese emerging designer Võ Thanh Tiến captivated the audience with her innovative lighting designs that seamlessly merge traditional craftsmanship with modern sustainability. This engaging panel beautifully highlighted the fusion of heritage and innovation that drives Vietnam’s creative evolution. A special thanks to RMIT Culture for making this event possible.

Image: First Site Gallery Artist Talk: Dr. Nguyen Thi Thu Ha & Võ Thanh Tiến Photo: Maryam Attar

 

Conferences and Symposiums

 
 

Image: Symposium attendees at LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore.

Imaging Pasts and Futures: creative digital practices in the arts

Imaging Pasts and Futures: creative digital practices in the arts symposium LASALLE College of the Ats, Singapore, November 22–23, 2024 

On November 22–23 RMIT School of Art and LASALLE College of the Arts hosted Imaging Pasts and Futures: creative digital practices in the arts, a symposium exploring the way artists, designers and creative practitioners are using new imaging technologies to interpret, transform and challenge established cultural narratives and knowledge systems. Panellists from Australia, Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Hong Kong and China highlighted experimental practices of artists and designers working with new technologies and how these innovative practices are shaping our futures.

Keynote speakers were Dr Christian Thompson AO, artist and Adjunct Industry Associate Professor, RMIT University presented on his language works and their translation into virtual space and 伍韶勁 Kingsley Ng, artist and Associate Professor at the Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University presented on his socially engaged art practice which incorporates new technologies. RMIT researchers included Kristen Sharp, Alison Bennett, Tammy Wong Hulbert, Drew Pettifer, Chris Barker (RMIT Melbourne) and Ondris Pui (RMIT Vietnam). The symposium builds on RMIT School of Art and LASALLE College of the Arts, University of Arts, Singapore’s long running international partnership since the 1990s and was supported by RMIT's Singapore Country Commitment. 

Photography in Virtual Culture

One of Associate Dean, Photography Dr Alison Bennett’s highlights for 2024 was participating in Photography in Virtual Culture, a two-day conference in May 2024 organized by the University of Westminster and The Photographers’ Gallery in London. They were able to present some of their research on expanded photography, specifically linking their research on the history of 3D printing through to some theoretical speculation about how phenomenology and posthuman thinking might frame the future of images and computing. 

The recordings from the conference are now online at Photography in Virtual Culture | The Photographers Gallery. Alison has  embedded the video of their presentation titled The Desire of a Third Dimension in Photography here: Expanded Vision & Hyperspace panel at Photography in Virtual Culture conference May 2024 — RMIT Imaging Futures Lab, along with the excellent, inspiring and hilarious presentations from the other members from the panel.  

RMIT Representation in London:
Ecopoetics and Environmental Artivism Conference at The London Arts-Based Research Centre (LABRC)

The London Arts-Based Research Centre held the Eco-Poetics and Environmental Artivism hybrid conference in London, took place at Pembroke Lodge in the iconic Richmond Park on July 11, 2024 (as well as fully online on July 12), bringing together scholars, creatives, and arts-based researchers from across the world, to discuss a wide array of topics on ecopoetics and various kinds of eco-aesthetics while looking at recent trends and innovations in the creative field, as well as the future directions of eco-creativity.

Four RMIT University HDR candidates were selected to present at the conference with discussions on topics such as the ‘Phenomena of the Forest’, Michelle Stewart, ‘Melting Icescapes/Black Landscapes’, Lingam K,  ‘Integrating AI and Art in Ecological Poetics’  Liang Xiao, and ‘Performance Digital Architectures for Interspecies Noisemaking’, Bixiao Zhang. Although all presentations were online, there was time afterwards to participate in further discussions to connect with others.

Image: courtesy of Art Education Victoria

Re-Assemble Art Education Conference 2024

In partnership with RMIT University, Art Education Victoria once again presented the Re-Assemble Art Education Conference in 2024. This year's event offered a range of hands-on workshops, engaging discussions, and an inspiring keynote speaker. The 2024 theme, Creative Journeys: Fostering Identity and Belonging, encouraged participants to explore new perspectives in art education.

Educators from primary and secondary schools, along with gallery educators from across Victoria, gathered for the event. A highlight of the day was the captivating keynote by South Sudanese artist Atong Atem, whose talk, The Non-Linear Journey, delved into the fluidity of creative practice. Workshop sessions were led by skilled facilitators, including Arlo Mountford, Jennifer Conroy-Smith, Isobel Knowles, Fleur Summers, Hannah Caprice, Sarah Tomasetti, Daniel Harris and Peter Murphy.

The event finished with an engaging panel discussion, Artistic Synergy: Working with Artists and Creating Connections, with Dr. Daniel Harris, Ellen Sayers, and Dr. Andrew Tetzlaff.

A special thanks to Paula McDonald and the incredible RMIT student volunteers for ensuring the day’s success.

 

Residencies

 
 

Image: courtesy of D A Calf 

D A Calf

School of Art PhD candidate and sessional academic D A Calf has recently returned from three months of fieldwork in the former Yugoslav republics of the Western Balkans focusing on sites in Bosnia, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Serbia. The trip included a research residency at the Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina which involved studying and sonifying elements of the museum’s archives and culminated in a solo exhibition at Kvaka 22 in Belgrade (September–October) incorporating sculptural works and a multi-channel sound and video installation. 

Image: Installation view, Tinieka Page, Dog on a Leash, Schoolhouse Studios, 2024

Tinieka Page

Congratulations to technical officer Tinieka Page who was awarded an Ian Potter Cultural Trust Emerging Artist Grant. Tinieka undertook a two-month residency at PADA Studios, in Barreiro, Portugal and subsequent self-directed research in Lisbon.

 

Publication

 
 

Arts, Community, Place 

Edited by Martin Comte 

Arts, Community, Place follows on from Community Arts (2012) and Community Cultural Development: Challenges and Connections (2015). This publication is again a diverse offering of issues relating to notions of arts, community, and place viewed from a broad community arts lens.

The contributors to this volume include: Martyn Coutts, Eme/Jamie Dela Rosa, Sophie Gabrielle Pigram, Gail Godber, Louise Godwin, Liam James, Rebecca Moore, Madeleine Sherburn, Ella Sweeney, Kate Turnbull, David Forrest and Martin Comte. 

Cover image: Robin Bold, Series 3, 2012.
Photographer: Jeremy Dillon

Arts Management: Insights, Perceptions & Narratives

Arts Management: Insights, Perceptions & Narratives (2024) brings together a range of writings produced by students in the Master of Arts (Arts Management) program at RMIT University who were enrolled over the period from 2020 to 2023. These papers cover the broad areas of arts management, curating, policy, law, community arts, arts criticism and collections.

The contributors include Kauthar Abdulalim, Bec Armstrong, Christiane Carr, Eloise Coomber, Martyn Coutts, Mish Eisen, Janine Fabienne Fritschi, Patricia Elizabeth González Ramírez, Ella Green, Emilie Wilkie Jeffreys, Esther Lavelle, Yao Li, Alex Norton, Marc Rivière, Ziqi Shao, Sophie Treloar, Ruby Vaggelas, and Matthew Watts. 

Arts Management: Insights, Perceptions & Narratives 
Edited by David Forrest & Robin Bold 

Art, Design & Communication in Higher Education

The current issue of peer-reviewed journal of Art, Design & Communication in Higher Education titled ‘Thriving Futures: Papers from The Australian Council of University Art & Design Schools’ is edited by Dean of the School of Art, Kit Wise, and published three papers from School of Art Staff and alumni. 

ReShaping Worlds: Thinking with and through positionality for thriving futures co-authored by Thao Nguyen, Jacina Leong, and Kristen Sharp 

Civil intent: Rethinking ‘the political’ in art and photography education authored by Alan Hill 

Boundary obsessions authored by Renée Ugazio and Clare Humphries 

You can read these papers here.

Image: Anne Nginyangka Thompson on NPY lands

Garland #35 The Land ✿ Caring through making

The second issue in the Together Spaces series is edited by Senior Industry Fellow Dr Kevin Murray (with guest editor Angie Martin) and features articles about creative practice that is situated in nature. This includes the care for Country exercised by artists in remote Arts Centres and artist residencies around the world where designers and makers interact with the environment. There are stories from India, Scotland, Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand, Ghana, Iran, Brazil, Uganda, USA, Indonesia, Japan, Georgia, Portugal and Nepal.

New Photobooks from Australia 

Photography lecturers Isabella Capezio and Dr Rebecca Najdowski recently had their individual work featured as part of the photography book display New Photobooks from Australia at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. Presented in their new Photography Centre, Rebecca and Isabella’s books were selected by PHOTO Australia to coincide with the PHOTO2024 festival in Melbourne. 

Image: New Photobooks from Australia — Room 98, The Kusuma Gallery. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London 

RMIT School of Art Highlights 2024 Newsletter
Compiled, designed, and edited by Bronwyn Hughes, Gracia Haby, and Louise Jennison.