Femmage

This display draws its name from the title of the work on view by Sally Smart. In selecting this title, Smart was paying homage to an earlier generation of Feminists, including artist Miriam Schapiro, who used the word to describe the use of traditional women's techniques in contemporary art making.

Drawn from the collection, the works of art on display include Sarah Contos Presents: The Long Kiss Goodbye, the inaugural winner of the Ramsay Art Prize. Many of the works combine or collage materials, including paint, photographic imagery and fabric to reference themes pertaining to women and identity. Jacqui Stockdale uses photography to feminise folklore; Julie Fragar layers paint to reveal forgotten family histories and Annabelle Collett uses the colours prescribed to gender to craft a new feminist lexicon, one with architectural intent. For Caroline Rothwell, imagery derived from her archive of personal photographs and news clippings is incised into black PVC that hangs from the wall like an industrial quilt, while for Ali Gumillya Baker, a photographic portrait of fellow performer, activist and academic Faye Rosas Blanch, creates a new Indigenous feminist icon.

The materiality and experimentation inherent in all of these works is matched with each artist’s keen sense of social, political and personal enquiry.