Unmasked Selfies in Solidarity
Rebooting #unmaskedselfiesinsolidarity
RMIT University
7 April 2020
#unmaskedselfiesinsolidarity was a creative response to the initial outbreak of COVID-19 in January 2020. At the time, many of our international students were self-isolating at home in China or Melbourne when the travel bans began. At the same time, many of us began to feel the emotional toll of the new global health crisis and the racism that had emerged.
In just over two weeks in February, more than 300 selfies were contributed to the project by students, staff and the wider public. A ‘pasteup wall’ was created on the RMIT Melbourne campus in Building 2 and an ancillary exhibition was hung in the Rey Area Gallery in Building 24. Our team has grown to a ‘curatorium’ of 8 including staff and students from School of Art, Architecture & Urban Design, and Media & Communications. It has become an expansive and rhizomatic project with new iterations and forms developing each day.
The project will now reboot to reflect on our current situation with Stage 3 restrictions in Melbourne, which have limited our access to everyday public activity with students and staff teaching and learning remotely. Please join us by submitting a new selfie and a message of connection or hope to document this moment in time. All are welcome, so please share this group with your friends.
Please continue to support our students through the Facebook group.
Weibo project translation in Chinese
All images courtesy #UnmaskedSelfiesinSolidarity, RMIT School of Art