Screenshot from MUMA
Monash University Museum of Art has published a new writing project Fifty artworks from the Monash University Collection. This online publication presents a suite of specially commissioned texts by art historians, curators and artists.
From Helen Hughes, Research Curator
MUMA’s new writing project, Fifty artworks from the Monash University Collection, presents a suite of specially commissioned texts by art historians, curators and artists. In inviting these responses, our desire was to open the Collection up to a broad range of voices and perspectives – from those who have had close contact with it over five decades, to those new to it. The fifty selected artworks include some of the most well-known and seen of the Collection, as well as others that deserve greater attention. Without being too prescriptive, the selection reflects the material, conceptual, cultural and temporal diversity and scope of the Collection itself.
In these texts, writers examine the selected artworks in detail – offering a close analysis of the specific materials, techniques and installation devices used – and elaborate on their historical and art-historical contexts. Most importantly, each artwork is considered from the perspective of the present, and brought into dialogue with our contemporary moment. As such, the ensuing dialogues reflect the way the Collection functions in the world at large: as an active agent in evoking critical thought.
With currently over fifty per cent of the Collection’s artworks on display around Monash University’s five Australian campuses, these texts are intended to enrich daily interactions with Collection artworks and extend learning, appreciation and knowledge for staff, students and visitors. Published online alongside our searchable Collection database, the project is also crafted with a broader range of online readers and researchers in mind.
In selecting these artworks for attention, newer art forms that are less frequently acquired by museums – such as performance and installation – have been an area of particular focus. As such, Bree Richards writes on Bianca Hester’s performative HOOP PROPS 2011–13, while Anneke Jaspers describes ways to engage with Agatha Gothe-Snape’s functional public artwork on the Caulfield campus, This scheme was a blueprint for future development programs 2015.
Read more on the Monash website: https://www.monash.edu/muma/collection/level-2-page/Fifty-artworks-from-the-Monash-University-Collection