Category: Melbourne Events

Art and Art History related events in Melbourne. We welcome submissions in this category. If you are organising or know of an event that would be of interest to our readers please see ‘Contact Us’ for detail on how to submit an item.

Lecture | Luciano Chessa Music the dead can hear: Occult presences in Luigi Russolo’s “Art of Noises”

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This lecture examines the work of Italian Futurist, painter and musician Luigi Russolo, presenting a reading of the mechanical sound synthesizers, the intonarumori, that he began to create in 1913. It traces the roots of Russolo’s instrument to Leonardo da Vinci’s noisemakers, and then reestablishes the previously unacknowledged prominence of occultism, including theosophy, in early twentieth-century Italian culture. There it operated in tandem with contemporary scientific ideas about X-ray and wireless telegraphy—all with an emphasis on waves, vibrations, and their new communicative potential. With this in mind, it can be argued that Russolo’s noise aesthetic and its practical manifestation—the intonarumori—were for him, and for his Futurist associates, elements of a multi-levelled experiment to reach higher states of spiritual consciousness. Tuesday, 3rd July 2018, 6:00pm Florence Peel Centre 126 Moor Street, Fitzroy, Melbourne Convened by Anthony White Free to attend Luciano…

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Launch | emaj 10 | Buxton Contemporary

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Help us launch the tenth edition of emaj! Please join the editors for a drink in the Buxton Contemporary foyer to celebrate the tenth edition of the electronic Melbourne art journal. emaj was co-founded by our director, Ryan Johnston in 2005, who will launch the edition along with current editors, Giles Fielke, Dr Helen Hughes and Paris Lettau. emaj (electronic Melbourne art journal) is an online, refereed art history journal published in Australia. emaj aims to provide an international forum for the publication of original academic research in all areas and periods of art history. Topics covered include fine arts, architecture, curatorship, politics and aesthetics, visual culture, philosophy, historiography and museum studies. emaj welcomes monographic articles about specific artists or art collectives as well as thematic or theoretical analyses on aspects of art history. All articles are blind-refereed by academics working within the relevant field.

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Symposium | From Melancholy to Euphoria: The materialisation of emotion in Middle Eastern Manuscripts Symposium | University of Melbourne

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  From Melancholy to Euphoria: The materialisation of emotion in Middle Eastern Manuscripts Symposium 27-28 June 2018, The University of Melbourne Register Now Full Programme Registrations are now open for the two-day symposium From Melancholy to Euphoria: The materialisation of emotion in Middle Eastern Manuscripts. Early-bird registrations are now available at $100 for both days, including: all conference sessions 27-28 June 2018 with keynote lectures by Assoc. Prof Mandana Barkeshli, Prof Amir Zekrgoo, Prof Robyn Sloggett and Dr Stefano Carboni. Morning tea is provided both days. Standard registrations cost $120. This Symposium will examine the relationship between text, manuscript production (calligraphy and illumination) and the elicitation and excitation of emotions in this form of transmission of knowledge and beliefs. This symposium is made possible by support from the ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions. The Middle Eastern…

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Discussion | Outsider Art: Contemporary Considerations | University of Melbourne

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The “Talk, The Talk” lecture series and Art Curatorship Partnership (ACP) PROJECTS invites you to join Dr. Anthony White, Senior Lecturer at The University of Melbourne and Ms. Sim Luttin, Curator and Gallery Manager at Arts Project, in a discussion on some of the myths and stereotypes that have been applied to the work of Outsider artists. Entitled ‘Outsider Art: Contemporary Considerations’ this topic will include artists who have experienced disability, mental issues and other forms of marginalization over the last 100 years. It will also entail a presentation reflecting on the role of supported studios, focusing on Arts Projects Australia as a national and international model of excellence, and extend to discussing barriers encountered in broader contemporary practice. Date: Friday 27th April, 5:00PM-6: 30 PM Venue: Room 553, Level 5, Arts West Building, The University of Melbourne, Parkville This…

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Exhibition Opening | Unsettlement | MUMA

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MUMA | Monash University Museum of Art invites you to Unsettlement. The exhibition will be opened by Michael Tawa, architect and Professor of Architecture at the University of Sydney, Australia. 28 April – 7 July 2020 Opening function: 2 May 2018, 6 – 8pm Artists: Dana Awartani (SA), Monica Bonvicini (IT/DE), Aliansyah Caniago (ID), Jasmina Cibic (SI/UK), Forensic Architecture (UK), Hiwa K (IQ), Jill Magid (US), Hayley Millar-Baker (AUS), Archie Moore (AUS), Amie Siegel (US) Unsettlement is an international group exhibition that explores the ways that power manifests through architecture and in the built environment. The artworks presented register the material force and histories of architecture, and encourage a productive sense of upheaval and re-appraisal. Unsettlement features artists from Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, United States of America, Italy, United Kingdom, Iraq, Slovenia and Australia. Through their engagement with specific architectural forms,…

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Visual Art Folio Preparation Workshop

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Visual Art Folio Preparation Workshop The VCA’s Visual Art Winter School: Folio Preparation is a crucial intensive short course in contemporary visual art practice.  Guided by a dedicated artist and industry professional, you will gain a fundamental insight into preparing your visual art folio; a pivotal asset of the professional artist. This workshop is perfect for those embarking on VCE study in visual art and those planning to pursue creative tertiary study in visual and fine arts at the VCA or elsewhere. Essential Information Full Fee: $550 Prior experience with visual art making (eg. painting, drawing, photography etc) is beneficial but not essential, see website for more information. Dates: 9 Monday – 13 Friday July 2018 Bookings: https://www.trybooking.com/book/event?eid=363605&bof=1 Contact Information E: visualart-shortcourses@unimelb.edu.au P: +61 3 8344 6951

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Lecture Series | Uncommon Knowledge at ACCA

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Uncommon Knowledge | ACCA’s  annual lecture series this year focuses on artists and the special interests that inspire and inform their art practice. Leading Australian artists such as Bill Henson, Fiona Hall and Ronnie van Hout will discuss the subjects and pastimes that occupy them – from eavesdropping, UFOs, to the body and Brexit, the stolen Picasso and art activism, architecture, social media and The Australian Ugliness. Presented on Monday evenings at 6pm from April through November, the series offers a trans-generational insight into the inner lives and thinking of artists. Tickets are $35 per lecture or $200 for a Season Pass to all eight lectures (includes drink). The program includes: 30 April, Bill Henson: The wilderness within: The body as the last frontier   Internationally renowned photographer Bill Henson will explore his lifelong fascination with the human figure.  Henson, who represented Australia in…

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Symposium | CHANGEMAKERS #1: Mapping Sustainability in the Visual Arts | VCA Melbourne

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SYMPOSIUM – CHANGEMAKERS #1: Mapping Sustainability in the Visual Arts Friday 20 April 2018, 10.15am-17.30pm Federation Hall, VCA, Melbourne This symposium is FREE and open to students and the public. CHANGEMAKERS #1 will bring together key people in the field who are focused on fostering change and new models of arts and cultural practice, and even more importantly – those who are seeking a sustainable future where emerging artists, curators and arts professionals are placed at the forefront. Broken down into six distinct themes, six leaders in the arts will discuss their present circumstances and future vision. With an introduction by Dr. Rachel Marsden, Lecturer in Art Curatorship at the University of Melbourne, speakers include: Patricia Piccinini – Artist and Enterprise Professor, Victorian College of the Arts Alexie Glass-Kantor – Curator and Executive Director, Artspace, Sydney Corbett Lyon – Collector…

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Short Course | The Galileo Affair | University of Melbourne

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6.15pm – 8.30pm | Thursdays 24 and 31 May, 7 and 14 June This short course will focus on the ‘Galileo Affair’ which remains one of the most fascinating episodes in the history of science. The ‘Galileo Affair’, as it has come to be known, remains one of the most fascinating episodes in the history of science. It is often taken as an illustration of the repressive attitude of the Catholic Church to the rise of modern science in the 17th century, and an example of the fundamental conflict between science and religion. Yet, it has been subject to distortion and myth, and continues to spark intense disagreement among historians, scientists and philosophers. In 1632 Galileo published his Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems, in which he defended the Copernican view that the earth moves around the sun. He…

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Lecture | Things Fall Apart – Putting the world back together one document at a time – Robyn Sloggett | University of Melbourne

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Faculty of Arts Dean’s Lecture: ‘Things Fall Apart’ – Putting the world back together one document at a time The world as we know it swirls around us as objects, ideas and aspirations. How we make sense of it is dependent on what we have access to, what we can imagine and how we are enabled to think, learn and do. The loss, degradation, or inauthenticity of cultural material threatens the security of our knowledge and the construction of identity, and community that is unable to access its cultural, historic and scientific records is impeded in its ability to construct relevant and effective cultural futures. Conversely, a well-secured cultural record assists a community to tell its stories, understand its past, and cement its identity into the future. Taking Chinua Achebe’s 1958 novel as the point of departure, in this lecture…

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Seminar | Engaging with landscape and heritage through playful methods – Phil Jones | Deakin Cultural Heritage Seminar Series

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Engaging with landscape and heritage through playful methods – Phil Jones (University of Birmingham) Visiting a heritage landscape is very different to learning about the same site second-hand through text and images. An embodied, multisensory, engagement enhances emotional and affectual connections to the histories that such sites bear witness to. This paper discusses a series of methodological tools that can be used to examine the embodied connection between people and place, uncovering both tangible and intangible histories. Three approaches in particular are reflected upon: the use of smartphones to crowdsource materials gathered in-place; arts-based urban transects; and biosensing as a tool for examining the emotional unconscious. The potentials and limitations of each are discussed, with an emphasis on methodological triangulation, combining novel and more conventional techniques to gain rounded insights into how people understand landscape and heritage. Phil Jones is…

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Colony: Australia 1770-1861 and Colony: Frontier Wars Exhibition Opening Programs Saturday 17th March | NGV Australia

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For the opening weekend of Colony: Australia 1770-1861 and Colony: Frontier Wars the NGV is hosting a series of talks and performances on Saturday 17th March. See the website: https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/program-series/colony-opening-weekend/ COLONY: AUSTRALIA 1770–1861 Drawing from public and private collections across the country, Colony: Australia 1770–1861 brings together the most important examples of art and design produced during this period and surveys the key settlements and development of life and culture in the colonies. Importantly, the exhibition acknowledges the impact of European settlement on Indigenous communities. COLONY: FRONTIER WARS Colony: Frontier Wars explores the period of colonisation in Australia from 1788 onwards and its often devastating effects on First Peoples. The period, that was to many the discovery of a ‘wondrous’ southern continent, was to others an invasion of homelands occupied for many millennia. This powerful exhibition reveals some of what…

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Writing & Concepts | Working the Room: Some notes on Exhibition-Making – John Meade | Collingwood Arts Precinct

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John Meade presents: “Working the Room: Some notes on Exhibition-Making” Sat 17 March 3:00pm @ Collingwood Arts Precinct 35 Johnston Street, Collingwood VIC 30066 Website WRITING & CONCEPTS JOHN MEADE is a Melbourne based artist who graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne, in 1994. His recent solo exhibitions include, Set Pieces (2016) and Autumn 2014, both at Sutton Gallery Melbourne. Through 2010/2011, a NETS survey exhibition curated by Zara Stanhope, Objects to Live By: The Art of John Meade, toured six regional and city public galleries throughout Australia. Other solo exhibitions include, The Desultory Arabesque (2012), Show Business (2009) and Aftermath (2005), all at Sutton Gallery Melbourne; Incident in the Museum 2 (2004), at the Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne, and Propulsion (2001), at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney and the…

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Opening Event for Bundoora Homestead Art Centre’s two new exhibitions – We and Accession.

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IMAGES: L-R Briony Galligan | Nothing incarnadine (detail) | 2016 | teak hands made in collaboration with Lejar Budiharjo from Carving Arts Studio in Jogja Calling | 4A Centre for Contemporary Art, Sydney | Photo: Courtesy of artist. Claire McArdle | The Missing Parrot | 2016 | hand carved second hand hammers | Darebin Art Collection.

Exhibition Opening Join us at the opening and hear from leading art critic, art historian and curator Sasha Grishin AM FAHA. The exhibition opening will include a Welcome to Country and Smoking Ceremony. WHEN: Saturday 17 March | 2-4pm COST: Free | includes refreshments BOOKINGS: not required, all welcome Website: http://www.bundoorahomestead.com/whats-on/ We We explores emerging contemporary artists with studios in the Darebin municipality. These artists have diverse practices that critically engage with installation, site, sound, video, performance, text, photography, painting and sculpture. They have studios in Northcote and Preston at Artery Cooperative, Beaconsfield Parade Studios, Arts Project Australia and Gertrude Contemporary. Featuring: Julian Aubrey Smith, Beth Caird, Georgina Criddle, Saskia Doherty, Briony Galligan, Jethro Harcourt, Rosie Isaac, Warren O’Brien and Lucreccia Quintanilla. Curated by Renee Cosgrave. Accession Accession presents recent acquisitions to the Darebin Art Collection representative of a cross-section of Australian contemporary…

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Lecture | Skin Deep: Reading Emotion on Early Modern Bodies – Prof Evelyn Welch

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This lecture will explore the ways emotion was understood on the body’s surface and how this was represented both materially and visually in early modern Europe. Based on traditional medical theories, early modern skin was often described as a ‘fishing net’, something that held the body in place and offered a decorative surface but had no function of its own. At the same time, the body’s surface also told you about its interior wellbeing. Learning to read the body meant both examining the exterior and sampling the interior’s waste products ranging from urine to hair and tears. This approach was as true of animals as it was of people. Manuals described how to read faces and skin, and argued for and against blushing. You could also predict astrological futures by reading the lines on foreheads as well as on hands…

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