Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the UN-declared International Women’s Year (1975), the exhibition charts the relationship between art, protest and social change over the last 50 years.
By facilitating a conversation between women and nonbinary artists across the decades, Protest is a creative act confirms that many of the issues addressed by women photographers in the 1970s – around the body, sexuality, race, national identity and the environment – have not been resolved. These concerns are shared today by a younger generation of artists who build upon inheritances of the past, demonstrating their objection and defiance through new creative strategies. Collectively, the historical and contemporary works in the exhibition show the importance of friendship and community, and the good that can come from working together to advocate and agitate for change.
Protest is a creative act exhibits important and rarely seen photographs by some of Australia’s most celebrated women photographers. It includes work from their personal archives, as well as from the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery of Ballarat and the Museum of Australian Photography.
Curated by guest curator Kelly Gellatly and MAPh Senior Curator Angela Connor
From Saturday 7 July to Sunday 31 August at MAPh
FREE entry
Images:
Sandy EDWARDS
Feminist Filmworkers conference Minto 1979
gelatin silver print
courtesy of the artist
Liss FENWICK
Untitled 3 2019
from the series many ants 2019 –
pigment inkjet print
courtesy of the artist
Tina STEFANOU
Grandmothers started the revolution 2021
chromogenic print
from the series hard boiled red eggs, Wattle Glen
courtesy of the artist
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