Question the Space Catalogue

QUESTION THE SPACE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY Greater Dandenong City Council acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of this land, the Bunurong People, and pays respect to their Elders past and present. We recognise and respect their continuing connections to climate, Culture, Country and waters.

Front cover image: Kenny Pittock, One Step Forward Ten Steps Back, Synthetic Polymer Paint on kiln fired ceramic, 2023 Current page: Ross Coulter, Sticker Prints, silver gelatin photograph with stickers, 2018-2019

QUESTION THE SPACE | A SERIES OF QUESTIONS

By Esther Gyorki, Exhibition Curator Although slightly unconventional, rather than telling you about the exhibition, this essay will explore your thoughts and ideas around exhibitions and galleries.

What is the white cube? And is a white cube with white plinths in a building the best way to display art?

Why are you here? What draws you to an exhibition?

The Tate Gallery refers to the white cube as ‘a certain gallery aesthetic characterised by its square or oblong shape, white walls and a light source usually from the ceiling.’1

Question the Space looks at the possibilities and limitations of a gallery as a space, both for artists and audiences. What is a gallery for? Why do we visit galleries? What are the constraints of a gallery for both visitors and artists and how can we overcome these?

Every person’s answer is different and so it should be. There is no right answer. Should visiting an exhibition be a diverse enough experience that everyone should feel fulfilled?

Do you enjoy standing in a white cube looking at paintings?

Or do you prefer to walk into a space with more colour and movement and participation?

Do you want to feel challenged? Have your thoughts provoked? Admire beauty? Feel connected? Amused?

Inspired? Find a space for calm? All of the above? None of the above?

The works in this exhibition explore these questions as well as provide an insight into the practice of a number of artists from across Australia and internationally and how their work translates into and beyond a gallery space. The themes of their works vary, from the built environment and place, to a reflection on the self and society, and access and inclusivity.

Question the Space attempts to offer spaces for the artists and audiences to explore the above themes, and consider both a traditional setting for the display of artworks and a new approach.

While the term ‘white cube’ was only coined in 1976 by Irish art critic Brian O’Doherty, the white cube as an idea began in the early twentieth century, a response to the increasing abstraction of modern art.2 In the 1970s, O’Doherty wrote a series of essays in Artforum magazine in which he explored the obsession with the white cube, arguing that every object became almost sacred inside it, thereby making the reading of art problematic. In a 2012 essay, writer Whitney Birkett wrote that the white cube ‘now elevates art above its earthly origins, alienating uninitiated visitors and supporting traditional power relationships.’3 Similarly, the placing of art on plinths, most commonly white, contributes to this idea of art as sacred, offering a sort of reverence and untouchability to it. In 1968, a major retrospective of Barbara Hepworth’s work was held at the Tate Gallery. Hepworth, in an attempt to question and reject this motion, placed her sculptures on the floor, on bricks and on concrete blocks.

While plinths are often also used to ensure the safety of the work, plinths and display cabinets provide their own set of challenges. Many wheelchair users, children and others may be unable to see and engage with the works, as the plinths can be too high. Similarly, the traditional hanging of works with the centre of the painting at approximately 150cm off the ground can also exclude children and others from being able to fully engage with the work.

1. tate.org.uk 2. Ibid.

3. ‘To Infinity and Beyond: A Critique of the Aesthetic White Cube’ by Whitney B. Birkett (shu.edu)

For children looking at a painting with protective glass in front of it hung at that height, often all they see is either their own reflection gazing back at them, or the reflection of the lighting focused on the painting.

But wait, what about before the white cube?

The exhibition of artworks in an indoor gallery setting only began around the 17th century, with artworks in galleries often displayed in dense arrangements from the 18th century onwards. Many private and public exhibition spaces were hung floor to ceiling with art.

In Australia, we possess a rich collection of some of the oldest artworks, made by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, with works dating back 30,000 years, if not older.

These incredible works have taught and engaged us for millennia.

Experiencing these works in real life; on rocks, on bodies and on other natural materials; in an environment entirely different to the white cube, provides an unparalleled richness. Artist Tina Patlas was inspired by circles that her relatives painted on their bodies with ochre and she now uses these circles in her works on canvas. For Tina, the shift from painting on a body to the canvas is a joyful one, providing her with a further connection to her family and Country through her artistic practice.

Is the way that we view and interact with artwork in a gallery setting too restrictive?

In Question the Space works are hung on white walls, as well as black walls, brick walls and temporary fencing. Other works are not hung at all. In Question the Space, TextaQueen inclusively centre their audiences with their new work Tantalising Token, which invites visitors to participate by breaking apart and bringing together the puzzle on the floor.

Beyond the walls and floor, the works do not just exist in the dedicated gallery spaces but extend into and beyond the whole building. Jordan Fleming and Dean Norton’s striking mirrored works appear in display boxes built into the side of Dandenong Library. Their works prompt you to look at yourself as you engage with the works, and force you to become part of the works and the exhibition.

The Guerrilla Girls’ works You’re Seeing Less Than Half The Picture and History of Wealth and Power, also share their messages beyond the confines of the gallery space. The Guerrilla Girls are renowned for their activist works appearing in public spaces including billboards and public appearances, always in their gorilla masks.

Kent Morris’ four works that adorn the fencing in front of the new gallery construction site on Mason Street explore the built environment and wildlife both on and around the construction site where they are placed as well as more widely around Melbourne. Kent’s works are publicly accessible all day seven days a week, inviting viewers to engage with the exhibition themes and artwork outside the confines of the gallery.

How can we make galleries more welcoming?

Do we need to make galleries more inviting?

Let’s discuss comfort and discomfort.

When you walk into a gallery do you feel the weight of gallery etiquette on your shoulders? Do you feel you need to speak a certain way? Or that the noise needs to be at a certain level?

Do you worry about children and how they will act? Does it annoy you that there are these considerations when you enter the space? Or do you appreciate these conventions?

This exhibition explores themes of feeling welcome and included in the gallery space. Visitors are invited to question the meanings of works, and engage and interact with works but in a way that you feel comfortable doing.

Rachel Burke often uses her garments as a tool for transformation. The inspiration behind a lot of Rachel Burke’s wearable works is the claiming of space and being seen – a rebellion against the pressure placed on mostly women to make themselves small. These garments purposely add volume and transform the wearer into a walking artwork, encouraging audiences to revel in the theatre of the creation itself, rather than the shape of the body underneath.

The hope is that some works will delight you and others may challenge you or make you feel uncomfortable, but all in a space that you feel is for you and where you can be yourself.

Sit comfortably with your discomfort.

Nick Selenitsch’s works from his More Rebounds series are designed to make you question their purpose. If you saw the scrunched-up paper on the ground, hesitated and wondered if the paper is part of the installation or an invitation to shoot some hoops, then, congratulations - you’ve embraced the meaning of the work. So, did you shoot a hoop or did you decide you’d better not?

Does everything and anything belong in a gallery?

Is the above question just too big for a short catalogue essay? Perhaps!

What I can say is that Question the Space consciously includes a diverse range of works across a range of disciplines.

Alongside the various artworks, Melbourne Art Library has popped up in the gallery space. How does it feel to engage with a library in a gallery? Did you feel welcome to sit and relax or did you question whether you could use and be in the space as you would in your local library?

Usually when you visit a gallery, you would expect to see a finished product or creation. What this does not capture is the work behind the completed artwork – the research, the sketches and the trials. Is there value in seeing this?

Kenny Pittock’s work Ox-Tober (31 Oxen that were drawn daily throughout October) is based on a month-long drawing project that he set for himself. Every day for the month of October, Kenny made a drawing of an Ox. The idea behind this project was to hyperfocus on one theme and really explore the different perspectives and approaches to the one subject.

Seeing this series of drawings, some which took five minutes and others much longer, gives us a deeper insight into Kenny’s work and invites us to appreciate what we don’t always see through only seeing a finished work.

Finally, let’s discuss the role of the audience in the exhibition.

Is it an unsigned agreement that by entering a gallery, the audience and their response become part of the work? Or is the displayed work completely separate to the audience?

In his series Audience, artist Ross Coulter took photos over three years at 90 galleries of audiences gathered in empty galleries, in which there was no art, watching a performance that does not exist. The purpose being to switch the subject from the performer to the audience member. Finding his four-year old daughter’s stickers, Ross stuck them onto some Audience test prints, decorating the black and white photographs and creating alternate narratives. Are these subjects, the audience members, works of art? Do you feel comfortable being part of the exhibition, or should the art exist separate to the audience? How much of your experience is based on your connection and engagement with the work, both literally and emotionally?

And finally, with all that said and done, there is only one question left to ask – which Neapolitan ice cream flavour is your favourite?

Q&A WITH ARTIST TINA PATLAS On a hot Friday morning in Milikapati and a cold Friday morning in Melbourne, artist Tina Patlas sat down for a chat over the phone with Question the Space curator Esther Gyorki. The two discussed Tina’s art practice, her inspiration and her thoughts on exhibiting her work in a gallery setting.

Esther: Firstly, thank you so much for taking the time today to chat, Tina. It’s so great to speak with you. I’d like to start by asking where are you? Can you please tell us a bit about your Country?

Tina: I’m here in Snake Bay, Milikapiti, that’s on Melville Island [Melville and Bathurst Islands are collectively known as the Tiwi Islands]. This is where I grew up and have lived all my life. I am originally from Wurrumiyanga, the other side of the island.

Esther: Where do you usually paint?

Tina: I paint at Milikapati community, Jilamara Arts. I have been working with Jilamara for I can’t tell you how long!

I’m still painting. That’s where I do my body painting and my art and I think about ceremony and when the deceased pass away [we] do the painting on their bodies to clear the deceased name.

I used to watch my grandfather as well, when he did the sculpture, I was interested from then on and I started to do painting. His name is Holder Adams. He did sculpture and made things out of wood – toys. He made me a toy bird made of wire and the head made of bloodwood and it was black and white. And a toy plane for my big brother. I kept watching my grandfather as he was doing those things and it was very exciting for us growing up.

Opposite image: Tina Patlas, Jilamara, Natural ochre on canvas, 2021

Esther: Can you talk a bit about how you make your work and what inspires you?

Tina: Every time I paint I think of dancing and how people paint their bodies and their face and then I think about my Country and the waterfalls running and these thoughts just keep coming to me. Every time I paint, it’s really good when I start thinking about my Country. I start doing birds and beaches, we have got a lot of beaches at our Country too.

Esther: I read that you’ve actually been painting for almost twenty years Tina: Yeah Esther: it would be great to hear what made you start? Was it watching your grandfather or watching other people paint, or something else?

Tina: When I started to feel stressed I thought I might as well give it a try. I had seen my grandfather’s works at the museum and thought ‘hey, hang on, that’s my Grandpa’ and then I started thinking how he was doing sculptures and I started doing it. My cousin brother [a close male relative] used to paint his body, big white circle on his belly and then criss cross and then I thought ‘oh yeah, how about I do this and I do it the other way’ so I started doing it and said ‘wow, I didn’t think it would come up like this, it’s so beautiful’.

Esther: Why do you think painting these Jilamara designs are so important? Do you paint more for yourself or to share with other people?

Tina: Well for me, I like to share my paintings and my art, the same as my grandfather did. He used to share it and I also want to do my paintings to show the world what Jilamara is about.

Esther: I love how you talk about the white circle which was on your cousin brother’s belly. How does it feel to be moving those designs from the body to the canvas?

Tina: It makes me feel alive, like I am part of my cousin brother and he is with me and helping me through this painting. That is how I feel when I paint. I think of him in spirit.

Esther: And how does it feel when you see these works hanging in galleries all around Australia?

Tina: I’m loving it every step of the way. For my Country, for my people – sharing ceremony.

Esther: We are thrilled to have your works in the exhibition.

The exhibition looks at the gallery as a space to hang the works on the wall. And that is why I really liked your work because it is beautiful, but also a really interesting shift from painting the body to painting on the canvas and then hanging that in a gallery space in Dandenong. If you could choose how you would want your paintings to be shown, what would you want? How do you want audiences to see your art? What would make you happiest?

Esther: Is there anything else you want to tell us about the artwork that you would want to share?

Tina: The work is about body painting and ceremonies.

When the deceased pass away and we paint ourselves and some people they would bring tobacco, blankets, that was a long time ago and it has stayed with me forever. That is the painting I do – for my Country. My totem is solid rock, that is what the circle is. And the colour lining represents my people, surrounding in ceremony. That is how I see my paintings.

Esther: Thank you so much, that was lovely to hear more about your work and the stories behind it and also just hear how passionate you are about your work and sharing it with new people and new audiences. We appreciate it so much.

Tina: Yeh, my work shows my land and my people and what we are all about. It’s about how to survive.

Tina: Happiest would be safe inside. In a gallery.

Esther: Do you paint with acrylic or ochre?

Tina: I use a rock from my own Country, my grandmother’s Country. We get a yellow rock, we scrape it and we burn it so it turns into red. It is hard work but it is worth it.

Opposite image: Tina Patlas, Jilamara, Natural ochre on canvas, 2021

ARE YOU ENGAGED?

By Nick Selenitsch

Words often get enlisted to specific ends beyond their generalised use. Take the word ‘engagement’ for example. In spousal relationships, to be ‘engaged’ involves the distinct customary entrée to the main event of marriage. Now an optional ritual, for many it is not a necessity or even potentially a relevant part of being in a relationship. For others it is a crucial make-or-break scenario. Personally, I have never been ‘engaged’. I have a life-long partner, now going on 24 years, but we are not married. Things are different in art. Here, engagement is a must. In art, engagement is everything.

If not immediately, then sometime down the track. In other words: It takes two to tango. This is the dance of art.

Unlike my personal life, I have been devotedly engaged to art my entire adult life. Though - continuing to indulge the romantic analogy - once upon a time, there were others. Before art, there was design. When I was around 15, I broke it off with design. I clearly had the youthful foresight to know that a life with design was never going to work. I must have had the realisation that a design marriage is always a lopsided affair.

One partner always does the bidding of the other. In design, the client directs the relationship. Necessarily so as the discipline is, at its heart, a job.

Then there is the work done. In relationships this might entail doing more of the jobs around the house, taking care of the kids, and/or generally tending to each other’s needs. In art, a rewarding engagement might just mean doing some extra research. I recently gave a talk at the NGV on Bonnard.

Afterwards, a member of the public, a retired IT professional, thoughtfully quizzed me about my speech. He asked if I had read the most recent book published on Bonnard, written by Lucy Whelan. I had, but only because I was researching for the talk. This person was a true art lover. Not because it came easily for him, but because he was willing to put the work in.

I recently came across a solemnly revealing quote from the great American architect Walter Burley Griffin, from a speech he gave at The University of Melbourne in 1923. He had just been scandalously fired from the job of designing Canberra, for the umpteenth time: ‘the creative individual in the modern world is condemned to one of three states: A parasite; a panderer; or, a recluse. It is possible for some artists to operate - to some degree - as a recluse, but the architect cannot.’

After exactly a century, this quote still rings true. But Griffin was wrong about one thing. There is no such thing as the artist-recluse, even to the smallest degree. While the artistrecluse remains a popular romanticised idiom - from Van Gogh to Ian Fairweather to Prince - in reality, no such thing exists. I’ll explain. For art to be art, it must be encountered. It must be seen. It must be experienced. It also must be and made with the intention that it will be appreciated as such.

And like any marriage, the two parts of the art encountered need to do their fair share of the work. An audience must do more than just show up. They need to be engaged. Thinking again in spousal terms: they must ‘put in’. This could just mean a devotion of time. After all, we all know that time offered is the first crucial ingredient of any relationship. Spending a few extra minutes, with an open mind to what might eventuate, often makes all the difference.

Being engaged in art is not always about reading a lot of words.

But it is about making an extra effort. For example, there are plenty of good art documentaries available (I recently re-discovered the amazing ART21 website), and plenty of exhibitions and artist talks on offer. One can’t just turn up to a gallery and expect to get the most out the encounter if no prior effort has taken place. Likewise, the sports goer who has spent the week listening to footy podcasts, reading the papers, and even heading to the team’s training session will get a lot more out of the weekend’s game than the audience member that has never seen a game of footy. Life is enriched by a deep dive into anyone’s interest, be it cooking, sport or art.

Riffing off Jimi Hendrix’s phrase, instead of asking yourself solely ‘Are you experienced?’, ask yourself: ‘Are you engaged?’

Opposite image: Nick Selenitsch, More Rebounds (installation view), wood, acrylic paint, glue, paper balls, 2013 Next page image (left): Nick Selenitsch, &, Pigment Pen on Paper, 2018-2020 Next page image (right): TextaQueen, Flame within the Frame, pigment ink marker and synthetic polymer paint on cotton paper, 2018

ARTIST BIOS TextaQueen

TextaQueen creates in collaborative processes with other diasporic people whilst examining their own existence living on others’ ancestral lands. They are a queer, disabled, non-binary Goan Indian, living on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung and Bunurong Boon Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation, in so-called Melbourne, Australia.

For over twenty years, they have been known for using the humble fibre-tip marker to draw out complex politics of gender, race, sexuality and identity in detailed portraiture. Their practice expands to photography, painting, curating, video, printmaking, performance, self-publishing, writing and murals.

TextaQueen’s work has appeared at the Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; de Young Museum, San Francisco; Western Exhibitions, Chicago; and Kunsthalle Darmstadt, Germany, and is in collections such as National Gallery of Victoria, University of Queensland, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Monash University of Modern Art, Art Gallery of Western Australia and the National Portrait Gallery of Australia. Residencies include ACME, London, International Studio and Curatorial Program, New York and Queensland Art Gallery.

A mid-career survey exhibition toured nationally via Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery in 2017.

Jordan Fleming

Melbourne based designer and artist Jordan Fleming works with metal, plaster, pigment and timber to create sculptural and experimental furniture and lighting pieces characterised by humour and vivacious, wonky asymmetry.

Fleming’s work expresses a personal exploration with materials through her use of sculpting plaster and pigments to create pieces that possess an emotional impact; conjuring feelings as if they’re living in the space, rather than solely serving a programmatic function.

Having a background in cabinet making and interior design, Fleming established her own furniture design practice in 2018. Fleming’s works have been exhibited in Melbourne Design Week (2020, 2021, 2022), At The Above Gallery (2021) and internationally at the Lake Como Design Festival, Italy (2022). Recently Fleming has be selected for the 2022 Vogue Living VL50 in the Product Design category. Additionally, her work has been profiled in design magazine Artichoke, architecture and design blog Yellowtrace, and Frankie magazine as the winner of their 2018 Good Stuff design awards.

Opposite image: Jordan Fleming, Looking at me, Looking at you, Small Wall Mirror 3.0, chrome aluminium, pigment, plaster, 2023 Photo by Alice Hutchison

ARTIST BIOS Ross Coulter

Ross Coulter is a visual artist working on the traditional lands of the Yaluk-ut Weelam clan of the Boonwurrung. Ross holds a BFA (Hons) and MFA (Research) from the Victoria College of the Arts.

Coulter has exhibited widely in a variety of artist-run initiatives and public institutions locally and internationally including a solo exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria in 2017 and a group exhibition at the Matsudai Nohbutai Arts Centre in Japan. In 2009-2010 Coulter developed and danced with Lucy Guerin Inc.’s production of Untrained, performing at the North Melbourne Meat Markets, the Sydney Opera House and at the Hong Kong Arts Festival.

Coulter has received numerous awards and grants including the George Mora Fellowship at the State Library of Victoria and the Keith and Elizabeth Murdoch Traveling Fellowship for his 10,000 Paper Planes project. The recent focus of his work has been an exploration of photographic portraiture.

Kent Morris

Kent Morris is an artist and curator of Barkindji and Irish heritage living on Yaluk-ut Weelam Country in Melbourne. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Monash University and a postgraduate Diploma in Fine Art from Victorian College of the Arts and is an alumnus of the National Gallery of Australia’s Wesfarmers Indigenous Leadership Program. Central themes in his art practice are the connections between contemporary Indigenous experience and contemporary cultural practices and their continuation and evolution.

Morris’ photography practice reveals the continued presence and patterns of Aboriginal history, knowledge and Culture in the contemporary Australian landscape by re-imagining and reconstructing the shapes and structures of the built environment to reflect the rhythms, form and geometric designs of the First Nations people of Australia. He engages audiences by manipulating technological structures and nature into new forms that reflect Indigenous and western knowledge systems merging together reinforcing shared histories and First Nations cultural continuity since time immemorial.

One of the central motivations for his work is to provide a dedicated and considered public space for the exchange of stories, histories, images and insights and to give visual representation to that which is often unseen. His art practice explores identity, connection to place and the continuing evolution of cultural practices whilst engaging audiences to question long held frames of reference.

Image: Kent Morris, Cultural Reflections - Up Above: Magpie-lark, print on metal, 2022

ARTIST BIOS Rachel Burke

Rachel Burke is a multidisciplinary artist and designer based in Meanjin/Brisbane, Australia. Burke’s process driven, performative work moves between wearable art, sculpture, contemporary painting, and installation to navigate themes of identity, memory, and obsession.

Burke harnesses playful abstraction with craft-based materials to create ‘portals’ for personal introspection. By activating the work through vivid colour and dense laborious decoration, the work aims to inject magic into normality. In turn, grappling with the bittersweetness of nostalgia for youth in adulthood.

Burke has exhibited her work in gallery spaces across Australia, recent solo exhibitions include: Garden of Gratitude, Brisbane Powerhouse, (2021), Apomowish, Hawthorn Arts Centre, (2021), Cute Tomb, Saint Cloche Gallery (2020), APOMOGY, Redlands Art Gallery (2019), The Little Mermaid, Hamer Hall (2019), Tinsel Town, Analogue Gallery (2017), The Magical Mundane, Fortitude Valley Mall (2016), APOMOGY, Enough Space (2016).

Recent group exhibitions include: City in the Sun, The Museum of Brisbane (2021-2022), The F Word, The Print Bar (2019), Wonderwall, Adderton Gallery (2019), Wonderland, The Australian Centre of the Moving image (2018), Yen Female Art Awards, GAFFA (2016).

Dean Norton

Dean Norton is a multidisciplinary designer and collaborator who develops products that consider form, function, refined detailing and harmony in materials. Drawing inspiration from personal experiences, he aims to create enduring performative works that connect on an emotional level, merging a balance between art and design whilst maintaining a minimalist aesthetic.

Born and raised in Essex, England, Norton originally studied graphic design before continuing his journey as an interior designer, graduating in 2008 with a Bachelor of Arts degree (Hons) in Retail Interior Design from the University of the Arts London.

Now based in Melbourne, Norton launched his studio in 2017, drawing upon his design experience to create visually engaging, locally made pieces including furniture, objects, and lighting, re-imagining a variety of sculptural forms through the exploration of finishes and materials such as glass, mirror, steel, and timber.

Since launching his design studio, Norton’s work has captured the attention of the global design community and appreciators alike. His ‘Containa’ series was recently exhibited at Rossana Orlandi during Milan Design Week 2023, and his work has been shortlisted for numerous design awards, winning the Vivid Emerging Designer Award in 2021. Dwell Magazine (US) named Dean one of the ‘best new designers out there’ as part of their 24 Rising Stars list 2022, and in 2021 his Concave Convex Mirror was acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria for its permanent collection.

Image: Dean Norton, Concave Convex Mirror, raw polished steel, 2023

ARTIST BIOS Tina Patlas

‘I like doing my painting. The truth is, I’m a bit restless and it’s hard to get to sleep at night. Doing my painting helps me relax.’ –Tina Patlas Tina Patlas began painting for Jilamara Arts and Craft Association in 2002. Although Patlas’ traditional Country spans areas of south west Melville Island and south east Bathurst Island (including Wurrumiyanga), she spent most of her youth growing up in Milikapiti on the north coast of the island.

Patlas works in the local community for Territory Housing, but has also painted at the art centre for many years. She held the position as Treasurer of the Jilamara Arts and Craft Association Executive Committee in 2003.

Patlas paints her own Jilamara design about Country, yoyi (Ceremonial Dance), Kulama ceremony and the wildlife of the Tiwi Islands. She has a special interest in the parlini jilamara, the old stories handed down by her ancestors.

When she was growing up, she watched her Grandfather, Holder Adams, paint and carve where he lived at Timrambu – just south of Milikapiti. She says, ‘He used to sculpt toys for us to play with.

This inspired me to become an artist.’

Kenny Pittock

Kenny Pittock is an artist based in Naarm/Melbourne who works with painting and ceramics to playfully critique the everyday. Pittock has held solo exhibitions in Italy, Singapore and New Zealand, as well as in many public institutions throughout Australia. Pittock graduated with a Fine Art Honours degree in painting from the Victorian College of the Arts, and since then has received various awards including the 2013 Linden Prize and the 2017 Redlands Emerging Artist Award. Pittock’s artworks are included in many public collections including Bendigo Art Gallery, the Monash University Museum of Art and the National Gallery of Victoria. Pittock is represented

by MARS Gallery.

Melbourne Art Library

Melbourne Art Library is a not-for-profit lending library that collects specialised art and design texts. Our reading room in the Nicholas Building in Naarm-Melbourne’s CBD is open four days a week. We are proudly independent and are curious about what being a ‘library’ means.

ARTIST BIOS Nick Selenitsch

Nick Selenitsch’s practice promotes the artistic and social importance of ‘not- knowing’. Through a variety of media - installation, drawing, sculpture and public artworks - his works create an elemental language out of familiar forms where the impulse to achieve the goal of singular understanding is both continuously acknowledged and endlessly eschewed.

Nick Selenitsch received a Bachelor of Fine Art in Painting (Honours) from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2003, where he has taught since 2008. Recent solo exhibitions include &, Sutton Gallery, 2021; Mechanical Horses, Sutton Gallery, 2018; The Mind on Fire, Incinerator Gallery, Melbourne, 2018; The Nature of Things, Sutton Gallery, 2016; Kangaroo Court, Latrobe Regional Gallery, Morwell, 2015; and, Nick Selenitsch – Play, Shepparton Art Museum, Shepparton, 2014. Recent group exhibitions include Overdrawn, Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Melbourne, 2018; Let’s Play: The art of our time, Bunjil Place Gallery, Melbourne, 2017. Design & Play, RMIT Design Hub, Melbourne, 2016; TarraWarra Biennial 2016: Endless Circulation, TarraWarra Museum of Art, Healesville, 2016; Pattern, Glen Eira City Council Gallery, 2014; The Gathering II: A survey exhibition of Australian sculpture, Wangaratta Art Gallery, Wangaratta, 2014; and, Melbourne Now, National Gallery of Victoria, 2013.

Guerrilla Girls

The Guerrilla Girls are anonymous artist activists who use disruptive headlines, outrageous visuals and killer statistics to expose gender and ethnic bias and corruption in art, film, politics and pop culture. They believe in an intersectional feminism that fights for human rights for all people and all genders. They undermine the idea of a mainstream narrative by revealing the understory, the subtext, the overlooked, and the downright unfair. They have done hundreds of projects (street posters, banners, actions, books, and videos) all over the world. They also do interventions and exhibitions at art museums, blasting them on their own walls for their bad behavior and discriminatory practices, including a stealth projection on the façade of the Whitney Museum about income inequality and the super rich hijacking art. Their retrospectives and traveling exhibitions have attracted thousands. Their new book, Guerrilla Girls: The Art of Behaving Badly collects hundreds of their projects from 1985 to 2020. Recently their work has been seen at Tate Modern and Whitechapel Gallery, London; São Paulo Museum of Art; the Venice Biennale; Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam; Museum of Military History, Dresden; Art Basel Hong Kong; and many other places. The Guerrilla Girls’ motto: Do one thing. If it works, do another. If it doesn’t, do another anyway. Keep chipping away. Creative complaining works!

Next page image (left): Guerrilla Girls, You’re seeing less than half the picture, screenprint on paper, 1989

Image: Rachel Burke, Portal 39 (detail), mixed media, 2023

QUESTION THE SPACE greaterdandenong.vic.gov.au/question-the-space | 9706 8441

TUESDAY 21 NOVEMBER 2023 - FRIDAY 1 MARCH 2024 Acknowledgements A special thank you to all the artists involved, the Arts and Cultural Development team at the City of Greater Dandenong, Tabitha Glanville, Holli Taylor, Peter King, Sha Sarwari, Nell Fraser, Sam Wood, Sutton Gallery, MARS Gallery, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Modern Times and Jilamara Arts & Crafts Association.