This month sees the full roll-out of CoUNTess: Spoiling Illusions Since 2008 (and yes, the capitalisation in the name is absolutely intentional!) with its Sydney and Brisbane launches coming up in September and October. The book received an enthusiastic response when it was first launched last month at the Creative Spaces Summit in Adelaide and in late July at Community Hall in the heart of the Melbourne Now exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV).
‘My motivation to start the Countess blog was to publicly call out gender discrimination, and I saw numbers and data as the way to do that,’ says Richardson. ‘In 2008 blogs were an exciting new way to broadcast this kind of research, as you could do it independently, and it didn’t require money or space to do it as blogs were free. Of course, my own frustrating experience of trying to live and thrive as an artist was dependent upon having money, space, affiliation and time.’
