Student mural art installation

Mali Gordon has been making art for as long as she can remember. “I started creating because I wanted to be better than my older sister,” she recalled. Over time, this initial spark has evolved into an intense passion for visual arts. In 2019, Mali took a gap year, and spent time experimenting with oil paints, coloured pencils and lino prints.

Mali moved to Hilda’s in 2020, and studies Graphic Design and Art History at the University of Melbourne. In her second year, Mali was elected as the GC Arts Convenor. In this role, she aimed to start a culture where the fine arts are valued, and where people who may have had less exposure to art could appreciate it. “A lot of contemporary art is inaccessible to the general public nowadays, and often requires a lot of context to understand it,” Mali noted. It was with this in mind that she saw creating a mural for the Hilda’s community as a perfect starting point. Thus, Mali set out to create a mural incorporating themes that the whole Hilda’s community can relate to; music, and the joy of music. “When I think of college, I think of dancing with everyone and having a good time. I wanted to encapsulate that feeling into the mural,” Mali said. Mali chose to use Hildarians as references for the figures in the mural. Between studying her Bachelor of Design full time and working a casual job, Mali said that finding time to complete the mural was a challenge. “Medium limitations also affected my progress, and every single colour block and line had to have two to five coats of paint,” she said. However, Mali found the experience greatly rewarding, and is proud to have completed her largest scale work to date. “I hope that everyone that sees the mural feels the same joy that I do when I see it,” Mali said.

Mullets for mental health

Mullets have made something of a comeback in recent years, but for the Hilda’s community this September, the retro hairstyle is more than just a haircut. A team of forty St Hilda’s students and tutors donned a mullet in support of the Black Dog Institute’s ‘Mullets for Mental Health’ campaign. Mid-lockdown with hairdressers closed, students Mali Gordon and Fred Hughes grabbed their clippers and together transformed all forty heads of hair. Mental health is an important yet often stigmatised topic, and these haircuts are a small way of generating conversation about mental health in the Hilda’s community. Over the month of September, the Hilda’s community raised $11,389 for the Black Dog institute. These funds will be used to support groundbreaking research into early detection, prevention, and treatment of common mental health disorders.

Peeter Mirlieb, from Canberra, donned an eccentric mullet for a month, which certainly got people talking. “Lockdown was a difficult time for a lot of people and it meant a lot to be able to help raise awareness and money for the Mullets for Mental health cause. It was awesome to see everyone around the College rocking mullets,” Peeter said.

It seems that mullets are certainly not out of style, and neither is the important conversation around mental health.