https://amyspiers.com.au Amy Spiers Tue, 30 Aug 2022 07:49:24 +0000 https://amyspiers.com.au en https://amyspiers.com.au/Home Fri, 17 Jun 2022 03:18:42 +0000 Amy Spiers https://amyspiers.com.au/Home COUNTER-MONUMENTS WEBINARTalk — 2022Public webinar presented by Amy Spiers and Genevieve Grieves.Hosted by the Australian Centre, University of Melbourne, as part of the Critical Public Conversations series: Undoing Australia. <img width="1844" height="1034" width_o="1844" height_o="1034" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f272c66a17c80594d2af79a608af0b2fc250ef0122411e26be35ec527e6eb2f5/Screen-Shot-2022-09-02-at-1.28.52-pm.png" data-mid="151891798" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f272c66a17c80594d2af79a608af0b2fc250ef0122411e26be35ec527e6eb2f5/Screen-Shot-2022-09-02-at-1.28.52-pm.png" /> LET’S GO OUTSIDE: ART IN PUBLICPublication — 2022 Public art anthology edited by Amy Spiers, Charlotte Day and Callum Morton. Published by Monash University Museum of Art, Monash Art Projects and Monash University Publishing. <img width="1476" height="2362" width_o="1476" height_o="2362" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ef605791c3c529a64f61bea626d0bfacfb7b1baf49687521a3f1aebf4628403b/LGO-cover-v2.png" data-mid="145652062" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ef605791c3c529a64f61bea626d0bfacfb7b1baf49687521a3f1aebf4628403b/LGO-cover-v2.png" /> TAKEOVER&nbsp;Curatorial —&nbsp;2022 Community artwork curated by Amy Spiers and Grace McQuilten with Dewi Cooke and The Social Studio, David Mackenzie and Youthworx, and Irine Vela and Outer Urban Projects. Presented as part of ACCA’s Who’s Afraid of Public Space? program at Parliament of Victoria Steps, Melbourne, 6 March 2022. <img width="2500" height="1669" width_o="2500" height_o="1669" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5371885c8eb5dfb396963972689aa8865ef57e692c62b771fde84e8ac88356ee/Takeover--Parliment-Steps-188.jpeg" data-mid="145652951" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5371885c8eb5dfb396963972689aa8865ef57e692c62b771fde84e8ac88356ee/Takeover--Parliment-Steps-188.jpeg" /> COUNTER-MONUMENTSSymposium &amp; Publication — 2021 Convened by Amy Spiers and Genevieve Grieves. Symposium hosted by ACCA in March 2021. Article published in Artlink Issue 41:2 in August 2021. <img width="1054" height="1289" width_o="1054" height_o="1289" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/faef5d98e7fb3ec617fd5102d79601d8466306d343aa0d7baed429a67bf149cb/Screen-Shot-2022-03-17-at-11.38.06-am.png" data-mid="148484497" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/faef5d98e7fb3ec617fd5102d79601d8466306d343aa0d7baed429a67bf149cb/Screen-Shot-2022-03-17-at-11.38.06-am.png" /> COMMUNICATION FAILURE: PROTESTING PUBLICS AND THE POLITICS OF LISTENING IN SOCIALLY ENGAGED, DIALOGIC PUBLIC ARTPublication — 2020 Journal article by Amy Spiers.Published in Public Art Dialogue 10:2 in November 2020. <img width="1108" height="1453" width_o="1108" height_o="1453" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/24d00f6b655e2ac71210b9bcd120711273f0bfebf302e64f7aa35f2b853946bb/Screen-Shot-2022-08-29-at-4.36.02-pm.png" data-mid="151602153" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/24d00f6b655e2ac71210b9bcd120711273f0bfebf302e64f7aa35f2b853946bb/Screen-Shot-2022-08-29-at-4.36.02-pm.png" /> OUR FUTURE Artwork — 2019 Artwork by Amy Spiers. Commissioned by Climarte as part of ART+CLIMATE=CHANGE 2019 Festival, Melbourne. Exhibited at Testing Grounds and across Melbourne, 26 April to 18 May 2019. <img width="3508" height="4902" width_o="3508" height_o="4902" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e0bd7afb77c6d59387bff591e97db3f65ecd059f072124f1fca3524a4bffcb79/CLI000_B_A3-flyer_016-1.jpg" data-mid="146050464" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e0bd7afb77c6d59387bff591e97db3f65ecd059f072124f1fca3524a4bffcb79/CLI000_B_A3-flyer_016-1.jpg" /> #MIRANDAMUSTGOArtwork — 2017 Socially engaged, site-responsive artwork and creative media activism campaign by Amy Spiers. Developed as part of practice-led PhD research following fieldwork at Ngannelong/Hanging Rock, Central Victoria. <img width="1753" height="2480" width_o="1753" height_o="2480" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f3db428db5d69119c5e48c3d8fff2f1a2ca3a0ebaf34838206e3d13cf5d18a85/2020-Crane-A3-no-url.jpg" data-mid="148485483" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f3db428db5d69119c5e48c3d8fff2f1a2ca3a0ebaf34838206e3d13cf5d18a85/2020-Crane-A3-no-url.jpg" /> BLINDSPOTS: THE UNHAPPY PUBLIC IN PUBLIC ARTPublication — 2017 Book chapter by Amy Spiers.Published in Civic Actions: Artists’ Practices Beyond the Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art. <img width="673" height="1023" width_o="673" height_o="1023" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/098218be7411ab4c6744f202a94b06b76d7c53bc8c3cef1cefd5e7c9c0403d86/9781921034831CivicActions_1024x1024.jpg" data-mid="151603668" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/673/i/098218be7411ab4c6744f202a94b06b76d7c53bc8c3cef1cefd5e7c9c0403d86/9781921034831CivicActions_1024x1024.jpg" /> CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC (PROTECTING SPACE)Artwork — 2014-17 Performance artwork by Amy Spiers and Catherine Ryan.First presented at 2014 Melbourne Art Fair, as part of MAF Edge Program, Social Capital. Performed also for Während der Ausstellung ist das Museum geschlossen/During the exhibition the gallery will be closed,&nbsp;Museum für Neue Kunst, Freiburg, Germany in 2016, and in Greece for Corinth Art Platform’s Art&nbsp;Panegyri in 2017. <img width="1920" height="1278" width_o="1920" height_o="1278" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b4e2c3c30f1f143926adc62e37547dbd2beed3114105da75a55f086e26c5548d/1.-Protecting-Space_Marc-Doradzillo.jpg" data-mid="151608726" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b4e2c3c30f1f143926adc62e37547dbd2beed3114105da75a55f086e26c5548d/1.-Protecting-Space_Marc-Doradzillo.jpg" /> https://amyspiers.com.au/Counter-monuments-webinar Tue, 30 Aug 2022 04:37:52 +0000 Amy Spiers https://amyspiers.com.au/Counter-monuments-webinar COUNTER-MONUMENTS WEBINARTalk — 2022 Public webinar presented by Amy Spiers and Genevieve Grieves. Hosted by the Australian Centre, University of Melbourne, as part of the Critical Public Conversations series: Undoing Australia. Increasingly across the globe, statues and monuments celebrating imperial conquest and colonial oppression are being defaced, recontextualised, removed by authorities or spectacularly toppled by protestors. It is evident from such acts that public memorials have become significant sites for inciting debate and action on the histories and ongoing legacies of colonial and racist violence. In Australia, it is routinely noted that there are contradictions in public remembrances that tend to honour white settler lives and accomplishments over Indigenous ones, and a culture of active silence on the violence of colonialism in public presentations of the past. In response, many contemporary Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists have produced public "counter-monuments" to make visible contested histories. In this lecture, Genevieve Grieves and Amy Spiers discuss how the public’s view of colonial history and its legacies can be confronted and transformed through creative counter-monument practice by drawing on a number of contemporary Australian examples. Further information ︎&nbsp;Australian Centre Critical Public Conversations series: Undoing Australia https://amyspiers.com.au/Let-s-Go-Outside Fri, 17 Jun 2022 04:01:58 +0000 Amy Spiers https://amyspiers.com.au/Let-s-Go-Outside LET’S GO OUTSIDE: ART IN PUBLICPublication — 2022 Public art anthology edited by Amy Spiers, Charlotte Day and Callum Morton. Published by Monash University Museum of Art, Monash Art Projects and Monash University Publishing. <img width="1476" height="2362" width_o="1476" height_o="2362" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ef605791c3c529a64f61bea626d0bfacfb7b1baf49687521a3f1aebf4628403b/LGO-cover-v2.png" data-mid="145651457" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ef605791c3c529a64f61bea626d0bfacfb7b1baf49687521a3f1aebf4628403b/LGO-cover-v2.png" /> <img width="2953" height="2362" width_o="2953" height_o="2362" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/554ea0b9f76ea2897cd3d4de8bda6aeb56cf9376ebd6323cb78bd9e1a7284d6a/Contents-page-2.png" data-mid="145651458" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/554ea0b9f76ea2897cd3d4de8bda6aeb56cf9376ebd6323cb78bd9e1a7284d6a/Contents-page-2.png" /> <img width="2953" height="2362" width_o="2953" height_o="2362" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/59447c707080d42cb17c1729357eb17b676c62101850475fbb84a0c3fab0c7f7/Contents-page-1.png" data-mid="145651459" border="0" data-scale="82" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/59447c707080d42cb17c1729357eb17b676c62101850475fbb84a0c3fab0c7f7/Contents-page-1.png" /> &nbsp; &nbsp;What do we want and need from our public spaces? As the world emerges from the profound limitations imposed by the COVID-19 crisis, this reader offers a range of possibilities from the domain of art. With contributions from twenty-five leading Australian and international artists, writers and curators including Cuban artist and activist Tania Bruguera, Indonesian artist collective ruangrupa, British art historian and critic Claire Bishop and Gunditjmara artist and senior knowledge custodian Vicki Couzens, Let’s Go Outside: Art in Public is a timely examination of creative practices in the public realm. From negotiating space in the settler–colonial context of Australia to responding to crises in the United States, Hong Kong and Aotearoa/New Zealand, the reader’s essays, case studies, interviews and visual contributions reveal how ideas and practices associated with remembrance, public history, urban regeneration, communality, accessibility and activism are challenging and innovating art in the public domain. Let’s Go Outside takes up questions from the successful 2019 symposium Let’s Go Outside: Making Art Public, presented by Monash University Museum of Art and Monash Art Projects (MAP), and reflects on the growing interest in making and presenting art outside of conventional gallery contexts. With a foreward by Charlotte Day and Callum Morton, and an introduction by Amy Spiers, book contributors include Michelle Antoinette, Alison Atkinson-Phillips, Claire Bishop, Daniel Browning, Tania Bruguera, Danny Butt, Clara Cheung, Madeleine Collie, Emily Cormack, Vicki Couzens, Sean Dockray, Mel Dodd, Felicity Fenner, Blair French, Brian Fuata, Mish Grigor, Oscar Ho Hing-kay, Jonathan Jones, Callum McGrath, Grace McQuilten, Carmen Papalia, Nikos Papastergiadis, Sam Petersen, ruangrupa and Zara Stanhope. Further Information ︎ Monash University Publishing https://amyspiers.com.au/Takeover Fri, 17 Jun 2022 03:18:41 +0000 Amy Spiers https://amyspiers.com.au/Takeover TAKEOVER Curatorial — 2022 Community artwork curated by Amy Spiers and Grace McQuilten with Dewi Cooke and The Social Studio, David Mackenzie and Youthworx, and Irine Vela and Outer Urban Projects. Presented at Parliament of Victoria Steps by Bus Projects and ACCA as part of Who’s Afraid of Public Space?, 6 March 2022. <img width="2500" height="1669" width_o="2500" height_o="1669" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5371885c8eb5dfb396963972689aa8865ef57e692c62b771fde84e8ac88356ee/Takeover--Parliment-Steps-188.jpeg" data-mid="145655413" border="0" data-scale="88" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5371885c8eb5dfb396963972689aa8865ef57e692c62b771fde84e8ac88356ee/Takeover--Parliment-Steps-188.jpeg" /> <img width="2500" height="1669" width_o="2500" height_o="1669" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/62950bd5e1da5305c7b2a5148b4c7a9badca5450bb8257f2d02292e0ab5fe86b/Takeover--Parliment-Steps-196.jpeg" data-mid="151327669" border="0" data-scale="88" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/62950bd5e1da5305c7b2a5148b4c7a9badca5450bb8257f2d02292e0ab5fe86b/Takeover--Parliment-Steps-196.jpeg" /> <img width="1668" height="2500" width_o="1668" height_o="2500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a65f29d28861a86cfa1e2bfbe83519e83005556cd0202c963d0dc6d2aac58f30/Takeover--Parliment-Steps-203.jpeg" data-mid="151327652" border="0" data-scale="39" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a65f29d28861a86cfa1e2bfbe83519e83005556cd0202c963d0dc6d2aac58f30/Takeover--Parliment-Steps-203.jpeg" /> <img width="2500" height="1668" width_o="2500" height_o="1668" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/134b3280de365e278f36b992849fdb8dcea287c66dddb6521155e3c95e52dc35/Takeover--Parliment-Steps-154.jpeg" data-mid="151327642" border="0" data-scale="88" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/134b3280de365e278f36b992849fdb8dcea287c66dddb6521155e3c95e52dc35/Takeover--Parliment-Steps-154.jpeg" /> <img width="2500" height="1668" width_o="2500" height_o="1668" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d8a5bfc85cbe8894d860ed8b05ce26e55b7508b1414827d498d945dfcf3d6cf5/Takeover--Parliment-Steps-159.jpeg" data-mid="146049886" border="0" data-scale="88" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d8a5bfc85cbe8894d860ed8b05ce26e55b7508b1414827d498d945dfcf3d6cf5/Takeover--Parliment-Steps-159.jpeg" /> <img width="2500" height="1669" width_o="2500" height_o="1669" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/71231eeca91f89c0e1ed76d6c5ed428b1250fdae20ce95b4ff573d927cf3d1d7/Takeover--Parliment-Steps-3.jpeg" data-mid="146049885" border="0" data-scale="88" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/71231eeca91f89c0e1ed76d6c5ed428b1250fdae20ce95b4ff573d927cf3d1d7/Takeover--Parliment-Steps-3.jpeg" /> Takeover is a program of public events for Who’s Afraid of Public Space? that celebrates the agency of our communities of diverse young and emerging creatives, and creates the opportunity to take back public spaces following Melbourne’s successive COVID-19 lockdowns. Curators and researchers Grace McQuilten and Amy Spiers from RMIT School of Art have partnered with curatorial team Dewi Cooke from The Social Studio, David Mackenzie from Youthworx and Irine Vela from Outer Urban Projects, and their three art-based social enterprise organisations that foster the creativity of young people from culturally diverse, asylum seeker, First Nations, neurodivergent and disabled communities through training and employment in fashion design, digital media production and performing arts respectively. Together, the curatorial team have commissioned young artists from each art organisation to present works that activate Melbourne’s public spaces, and the platforms offered by Bus Projects, ACCA, RMIT School of Art and 2022 Big Anxiety Festival. Takeover at Parliament Steps Supported by Bus Projects and ACCA as part of Who’s Afraid of Public Space? program, The Social Studio’s young fashion designers teamed up with Outer Urban Projects’ ensemble of talented young performers from Melbourne’s outer northern suburbs to present Takeover at Parliament Steps, a public event celebrating diverse young peoples’ return to public expression and public space. Held on Sunday 6 March 2022, 2-3pm along the ornate, colonnaded entrance of Parliament of Victoria—the home for political debate and democracy in Victoria—The Social Studio showcased vivid, colourful textile and fashion works that reflected upon notions of modesty across cultures, accompanied by ecstatic, lively and moving performances by Outer Urban Projects’ dancers, vocalists and musicians. Documenting the event through video and audio works were graduates and multimedia artists from Youthworx working in collaboration with Crawl Space Radio. An essay by emerging writer Anna El Samad, Mind over Modesty, was commissioned by The Social Studio to accompany the event. Films by Ruci Kaisila and Damian Seddon of Outer Urban Projects were also presented at ACCA as part of the Project Space: The Hoarding over the duration of the Who’s Afraid of Public Space? exhibition. Audio and multimedia works developed by Youthworx for Takeover will be presented with the support of Bus Projects, Composite and Crawl Space Radio in the coming months. Curators Grace McQuilten and Amy Spiers developed this program with assistance from the City of Melbourne 2022 Arts Grants program and the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body. Further information ︎ Art-Based Social Enterprises ︎ ACCA MelbournePhotographic documentation of Takeover at Parliament Steps by Keelan O’Hehir https://amyspiers.com.au/Counter-monuments Wed, 22 Jun 2022 01:14:08 +0000 Amy Spiers https://amyspiers.com.au/Counter-monuments &nbsp; COUNTER-MONUMENTS Symposium &amp; Publication — 2021 Convened by Amy Spiers and Genevieve Grieves. Symposium hosted by ACCA in March 2021. Article published in Artlink Issue 41:2 (August 2021). <img width="595" height="842" width_o="595" height_o="842" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cc17233a30f78730849ba5e60db6b5c84f96bc3f2895e4cb14f4c871fd0599d8/Counter_Monuments_Spiers_Grieves_Artlink_Issue-41_2.jpg" data-mid="151891970" border="0" data-scale="65" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/595/i/cc17233a30f78730849ba5e60db6b5c84f96bc3f2895e4cb14f4c871fd0599d8/Counter_Monuments_Spiers_Grieves_Artlink_Issue-41_2.jpg" /> <img width="566" height="725" width_o="566" height_o="725" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8ec2686fa27b1305d61f8e533ae5fe875a7d3a1a6fcb25144c76e9042b0420cc/Counter-monuments.png" data-mid="146537923" border="0" data-scale="60" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/566/i/8ec2686fa27b1305d61f8e533ae5fe875a7d3a1a6fcb25144c76e9042b0420cc/Counter-monuments.png" /> In March 2021, Genevieve Grieves and Amy Spiers co-convened the online symposium Counter-monuments: Indigenous settler relations in Australian contemporary art and memorial practices with hosting partner Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA). The symposium offered reflections on how the broader public’s understanding of Australian colonial history, its violence and legacies, can be challenged and transformed through creative memorialisation and critical, counter-monument artistic practice. It featured contributions by Paola Balla, Lilly Brown, Fiona Foley, Kate Golding, Julie Gough, Dianne Jones, Djon Mundine, Odette Kelada, Clare Land, Carol Que, Joel Sherwood Spring, and the Unbound Collective. Part of an ongoing project, the symposium will inform an edited book of essays to be published by Springer in 2023. In an article for Artlink Issue 41:2 In Public/Inside edited by Daniel Mudie Cunningham (August 2021), Genevieve Grieves and Amy Spiers in dialogic conversation consider key works and ideas raised during the symposium, as well as debates stimulated by counter-monument art practices, and how they become critical scenes to appraise past and present relations between First Peoples and settlers in Australia. Further information︎ Counter-Monuments symposium, hosted by ACCA ︎ Artlink︎ Spiers, A., and Grieves, G. “Counter-monuments: Challenging distorted colonial histories through public art and memorials.” Artlink 41, no. 2 (2021): 70-77. https://amyspiers.com.au/Communication-Failure Fri, 24 Jun 2022 01:28:56 +0000 Amy Spiers https://amyspiers.com.au/Communication-Failure COMMUNICATION FAILURE: PROTESTING PUBLICS AND THE POLITICS OF LISTENING IN SOCIALLY ENGAGED, DIALOGIC PUBLIC ARTPublication — 2020Journal article by Amy Spiers Published in&nbsp; Public Art Dialogue 10, no. 2 (2020) <img width="1108" height="1453" width_o="1108" height_o="1453" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/24d00f6b655e2ac71210b9bcd120711273f0bfebf302e64f7aa35f2b853946bb/Screen-Shot-2022-08-29-at-4.36.02-pm.png" data-mid="151520698" border="0" data-scale="60" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/24d00f6b655e2ac71210b9bcd120711273f0bfebf302e64f7aa35f2b853946bb/Screen-Shot-2022-08-29-at-4.36.02-pm.png" /> This article seeks to account for the disruptive and often unwelcome interlocutor of public art: the protesting and dissenting public. I do this through a discussion of two artworks by artist Suzanne Lacy, Code 33: Emergency, Clear the Air (1999) and Between the Door and the Street (2013), both projects that had a deep commitment to public consultation and collaboration during the development process and presentation, yet despite this, attracted protests from the activist communities the works’ sought to serve. I draw on anti-racist, critical whiteness and feminist theory, as well as recent scholarship on the politics of listening, to take seriously the nature of the disagreements raised by the protestors in each case. In doing so, I question the dialogic, collaborative models employed in Lacy’s projects, which found the protestors actions incompatible with the political aims of the works. I argue, however, that a politics of listening compels us to consider which speakers, and which speaking positions, get left out of the terms set by the dialogical, collaborative encounter. I contend that the protesting public could instead be considered generative, critically engaged interlocutors who bring attention to properly political questions that belong in the "good" narratives of public art. Further information︎ Public Art Dialogue︎ Spiers, A. "Communication Failure: Protesting Publics and The Politics Of Listening In Socially Engaged, Dialogic Public Art." Public Art Dialogue 10, no. 2 (2020): 245-262. https://amyspiers.com.au/Our-Future Fri, 17 Jun 2022 03:18:42 +0000 Amy Spiers https://amyspiers.com.au/Our-Future OUR FUTURE Artwork — 2019 Artwork by Amy Spiers. Design by Andrew Clapham. A0 sized street posters, paper size 1189mm x 841mm. Commissioned by Climarte and curated by Will Foster for Climarte Poster Project II as part of ART+CLIMATE=CHANGE 2019 Festival, Melbourne, Australia. Exhibited at Testing Grounds and across Melbourne, 26 April to 18 May 2019. <img width="3508" height="4902" width_o="3508" height_o="4902" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e0bd7afb77c6d59387bff591e97db3f65ecd059f072124f1fca3524a4bffcb79/CLI000_B_A3-flyer_016-1.jpg" data-mid="146050271" border="0" data-scale="47" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e0bd7afb77c6d59387bff591e97db3f65ecd059f072124f1fca3524a4bffcb79/CLI000_B_A3-flyer_016-1.jpg" /> <img width="800" height="1200" width_o="800" height_o="1200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2babacd1857a59d19ca72c2b8b15841a52a7f75b356f467f786d2bfeb41da327/24042019_Climarte_Flinders-lane-back-of-Hyatt_61-1.jpeg" data-mid="146049997" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/800/i/2babacd1857a59d19ca72c2b8b15841a52a7f75b356f467f786d2bfeb41da327/24042019_Climarte_Flinders-lane-back-of-Hyatt_61-1.jpeg" /> Our Future responded to the Climarte Poster Project II curatorial brief to provoke public dialogue on the unfolding climate emergency. The artwork drew on a long history of activist and artist posters but aimed to provoke and disrupt by resisting the brief to clearly communicate a message. Our Future employs phrases in local Indigenous languages to consider the rich knowledge and experience in ecological management and protection possessed by First Peoples, and conversely settlers’ ongoing ignorance and disregard of that knowledge. It was informed by the conviction of Aboriginal leaders and scholars, such as Tony Birch and Zena Cumpston, that to combat the impact of climate change the broader non-Indigenous community needs to engage with Indigenous practices of caring for Country. The poster consists of Woi Wurrung and Boon Wurrung translations of the phrase: “Our future depends on respecting country and Indigenous ways of being”. I collaborated with Wurundjeri and Boon Wurrung Elders and linguists to develop the phrases. The fact that the poster does not communicate its message to the majority of settler readers is intended to underscore the dominant cultures' illiteracy in First People’s culture and expertise: the poster is a warning sign that cannot be heeded. The work was commissioned by Climarte and curated by Will Foster as part of ART+CLIMATE=CHANGE 2019 Festival. It was presented as part of the second iteration of the Climarte Poster Project alongside posters by other contemporary Australian artists: Eugenia Lim, Sam Wallman, Clare McCracken, Julia Ciccarone, Jen Rae, Peter Waples-Crow, Kelly Doley, Salote Tawale and Dean Cross. More than 1000 posters from the series were pasted up around the streets of Melbourne and exhibited at Testing Grounds from April to May 2019. Dr Haley Singer in the catalogue essay for the exhibition described Our Future as generatively provoking “race anxiety and ecological anxiety”. She elaborated: “I do not have the skills to see Country through concrete. I live this illiteracy, but I am not often asked to confront it in the way Our Future, 2019, created by Amy Spiers in conjunction with Wurundjeri and Boon Wurrung linguists and Elders, asks me to. On this poster there are two phrases. When I see them, I am called to recognise a deep connection to land, waters and air”. The work is in the collection of the State Library of Victoria and was exhibited in their “The Changing Face of Victoria” exhibition curated by Bethan Johnson and Linda Short from May 2021 to March 2022. It was also published in the book, Art + Climate = Change II, edited by Bronwyn Johnson and Kelly Gellatly (Melbourne University Publishing 2021). Further information ︎&nbsp;Climarte Poster Project II catalogue essay by Haley Singer ︎ Climarte︎ Art Guide︎ Melbourne University Publishing https://amyspiers.com.au/MirandaMustGo Fri, 24 Jun 2022 01:28:49 +0000 Amy Spiers https://amyspiers.com.au/MirandaMustGo #MIRANDAMUSTGOArtwork — 2017 Artwork by Amy Spiers.Graphic design by Stephen Mitchell. Videography and editing by Zoe Scoglio, with music by Marco Cher-Gibard.Mixed media, dimensions variable. Socially engaged, site-responsive artwork and creative media activism campaign developed as part of practice-led PhD research following fieldwork at Ngannelong/Hanging Rock, Central Victoria. <img width="1753" height="2480" width_o="1753" height_o="2480" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6cec4e4c9af99586a09578153f20073327494fdaaf6dc8d516c378f7138ef076/2020-Cleft-A3-no-url.jpg" data-mid="148555190" border="0" data-scale="60" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6cec4e4c9af99586a09578153f20073327494fdaaf6dc8d516c378f7138ef076/2020-Cleft-A3-no-url.jpg" /> <img width="1753" height="2480" width_o="1753" height_o="2480" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f3db428db5d69119c5e48c3d8fff2f1a2ca3a0ebaf34838206e3d13cf5d18a85/2020-Crane-A3-no-url.jpg" data-mid="148486807" border="0" data-scale="60" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f3db428db5d69119c5e48c3d8fff2f1a2ca3a0ebaf34838206e3d13cf5d18a85/2020-Crane-A3-no-url.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="1676" width_o="2000" height_o="1676" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/56a4a9209e4a90609d3964f0b011ac18ae878c31f7820d5ba7ca9d32f6fd83dd/schoolgirls_web.jpg" data-mid="151519767" border="0" data-scale="99" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/56a4a9209e4a90609d3964f0b011ac18ae878c31f7820d5ba7ca9d32f6fd83dd/schoolgirls_web.jpg" /> <img width="800" height="532" width_o="800" height_o="532" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/150a093610dd1fc819c51597dd88f064970ad240bd51335e702904c13766550a/MMG-web-small_024.jpg" data-mid="151519877" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/800/i/150a093610dd1fc819c51597dd88f064970ad240bd51335e702904c13766550a/MMG-web-small_024.jpg" /> <img width="4256" height="2832" width_o="4256" height_o="2832" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/779c9449996cb759ae0ccf3faa807f6e21af7e2cdd42087a7abaf98f91be0ae0/MMG-High-Res_025.jpg" data-mid="151519878" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/779c9449996cb759ae0ccf3faa807f6e21af7e2cdd42087a7abaf98f91be0ae0/MMG-High-Res_025.jpg" /> <img width="800" height="532" width_o="800" height_o="532" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/07b62142a2df1fb7155e91a067de958f92cd065ab1e96687dbacd28324838e63/MMG-web-small_172.jpg" data-mid="151519890" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/800/i/07b62142a2df1fb7155e91a067de958f92cd065ab1e96687dbacd28324838e63/MMG-web-small_172.jpg" /> <img width="800" height="532" width_o="800" height_o="532" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5814201a6f21dcd29c0d800303861a3c232f737727c9fd90b30d8536ec9bc450/MMG-web-small_158.jpg" data-mid="151519927" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/800/i/5814201a6f21dcd29c0d800303861a3c232f737727c9fd90b30d8536ec9bc450/MMG-web-small_158.jpg" /> <img width="1200" height="798" width_o="1200" height_o="798" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0435cab9b74d82cff7b4ee384f214758efd79220618d7fe036a5f00c6776754d/MMG-web-proof-1-of-23.jpg" data-mid="151519534" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0435cab9b74d82cff7b4ee384f214758efd79220618d7fe036a5f00c6776754d/MMG-web-proof-1-of-23.jpg" /> <img width="2048" height="1365" width_o="2048" height_o="1365" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/75a976c507fe35f075287cdcc7ec2b000f28e056b4b9f24871dc3b94f33732af/20248138_10156481451758266_8856755002658445442_o.jpg" data-mid="151519296" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/75a976c507fe35f075287cdcc7ec2b000f28e056b4b9f24871dc3b94f33732af/20248138_10156481451758266_8856755002658445442_o.jpg" /> <img width="1200" height="675" width_o="1200" height_o="675" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2e11b21f32dcbcee6623e4d7bd5293f9e4065e847edb879c53c1ab404be47436/r0_252_4928_3023_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg" data-mid="151519205" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2e11b21f32dcbcee6623e4d7bd5293f9e4065e847edb879c53c1ab404be47436/r0_252_4928_3023_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg" /> #MirandaMustGo was a creative campaign conceived as part of Amy Spiers’ practice-led PhD research. It aimed to contest habitual associations at the iconic site of Hanging Rock loacted in Central Victoria with a white vanishing myth. Both creative media activism and socially engaged artwork, #MirandaMustGo called upon settlers to end their obsession with the character of Miranda and the fiction of vanished white schoolgirls derived from Joan Lindsay’s classic 1967 novel, Picnic at Hanging Rock, and to instead meaningfully address the real losses and destruction to Country experienced by First Peoples in the region as a consequence of rapid and violent colonial invasion. The campaign urged acknowledgement of Hanging Rock’s important ongoing cultural significance for sovereign First Peoples, the Wurundjeri, Djarra and Taungurung, and that the site was known by other names, possibly Ngannelong, before European occupiers arrived. &nbsp; The artwork mimicked the established methods and aesthetics of grassroots activism and included: the creation of posters, shareable graphics, t-shirts, campaign videos, and a website. A protest anti-picnic was also held at Hanging Rock on 14 February 2017, with a presentation from legendary Aboriginal activist Robbie Thorpe. Coinciding with the anti-picnic was the launch of a temporary #MirandaMustGo video installation presented inside the Hanging Rock Discovery Centre. #MirandaMustGo attracted public attention via a series of social media posts launched in January 2017 which quickly went viral and became the subject of national and international media attention. The campaign had broad public resonance as it communicated complex, critical arguments concerning Australia’s denial of its violent colonial past into a meme-friendly, sharable format and provided a unique challenge to a seemingly innocuous cultural icon, Picnic at Hanging Rock, in the 50th anniversary year of its publication. To date the campaign has generated numerous news features, articles and public commentary and has been discussed by theorists of visual arts, literature, film, activism, post-colonialism and Australian history, as well as used in teritary and secondary education of Picnic at Hanging Rock. Artistic outcomes and campaign ephemera have been collected by the National Library of Australia. Consequently, the project has prompted public discourse and reconsideration of the heritage information and narratives available about Hanging Rock. Most significantly, since the campaign’s launch all three sovereign First Peoples groups have had their perspective on Hanging Rock sought out with more frequency and media generated by the campaign is referred to by people wishing to have a better understanding of the site’s little-known colonial and Indigenous history. Artsitic outcomes of #MirandaMustGo have been exhibited in the group exhibition, I WAS HERE, curated by Anna Louise Richardson at Fremantle Art Centre in 2017, and were a finalist in the Incinerator Gallery’s Incinerator Art Award: Art for Social Change in 2018. The ongoing effects and reach of the campaign continue to inspire Amy’s current research and artistic practice. Further information︎ #MirandaMustGo website, updated in 2024 ︎ Original #MirandaMustGo website archived at National Library of Australia. ︎ Spiers, A. (2017) "What Really Happened at Hanging Rock." VICE Australia.︎ Spiers, A. (2018) “Miranda Must Go: Rethinking the generative capacities of critique, discomfort and dissensus in socially engaged and site responsive art”, PhD thesis, University of Melbourne.︎ Spiers, A. (2019) "#MirandaMustGo: Contesting a settler colonial obsession with lost-in-the-bush myths through public and socially engaged art."&nbsp;Art &amp; The Public Sphere 8, no. 2: 217-234. Videos︎ Experience the Mystery (2017) ︎#MirandaMustGo (2017) ︎ Robbie Thorpe Interview (2017) https://amyspiers.com.au/Blindspots Tue, 30 Aug 2022 05:09:12 +0000 Amy Spiers https://amyspiers.com.au/Blindspots BLINDSPOTS: THE UNHAPPY PUBLIC IN PUBLIC ARTPublication — 2017 Book chapter by Amy Spiers.Published in the book Civic Actions: Artists’ Practices Beyond the Museum, edited by Blair French and Anne Loxley and published by Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, 2017. <img width="673" height="1023" width_o="673" height_o="1023" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/098218be7411ab4c6744f202a94b06b76d7c53bc8c3cef1cefd5e7c9c0403d86/9781921034831CivicActions_1024x1024.jpg" data-mid="151603701" border="0" data-scale="80" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/673/i/098218be7411ab4c6744f202a94b06b76d7c53bc8c3cef1cefd5e7c9c0403d86/9781921034831CivicActions_1024x1024.jpg" /> There is often a largely unquestioned assumption in public art circles that generating good feelings is measurable proof that a project was successful. If the audience has been made happy, then the project is often assessed as good. If the public are content after participating in an art project, then it is deemed that the work has engaged them in the right way. In this book chapter I problematise these assumptions. In recent decades, theorists of emotions and affect, such as Sara Ahmed, Lauren Berlant, Ann Cvetkovich, Jack Halberstam, have urged a reconsideration of negative feelings – like depression, failure, shame, unhappiness and rage – in order to understand their enabling and galvanising effects for political engagement and community formation. This critical discourse contests the assumption that ‘good politics can only emerge from good feelings’ and contends that living better entails ‘embracing rather than glossing over bad feelings’. Informed by this work, I want to challenge the attachment to good feelings in public, participatory and socially engaged art which leads to a tendency to overlook the generative capacity of discontent. By drawing on the work of Ahmed specifically, I aim to expose the unhappy effects of happiness and to think about what gets ‘hidden, displaced or negated under public signs of joy’. I do this by looking at two artworks that were discussed at the ‘Civic Actions’ conference, Suzanne Lacy’s Between the Door and the Street (2013) and Michael Sailstorfer’s Folkestone Digs (2014), which offer useful case studies for discussing the wider phenomenon of glossing over the bad feelings stirred by public art. This essay is published in the book&nbsp;Civic Actions: Artists’ Practices Beyond the Museum, edited by Blair French and Anne Loxley and published by Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, 2017. Further information ︎&nbsp;Civic Actions, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia ︎&nbsp;Spiers, A. "Blindspots: The Unhappy Public in Public Art." Civic Actions: Artists’ Practices Beyond the Museum, edited by Anne Loxley and Blair French, 136-49: Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, 2017 https://amyspiers.com.au/Closed-to-the-Public Tue, 30 Aug 2022 07:49:24 +0000 Amy Spiers https://amyspiers.com.au/Closed-to-the-Public CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC (PROTECTING SPACE)Artwork — 2014–17 Performance artwork by Amy Spiers and Catherine Ryan.First presented at 2014 Melbourne Art Fair, as part of MAF Edge Program, Social Capital. Performed also for Während der Ausstellung ist das Museum geschlossen/During the exhibition the gallery will be closed, Museum für Neue Kunst, Freiburg, Germany in 2016, and in Greece at Corinth Art Platform’s Art Panegyri, 2017. <img width="4000" height="2649" width_o="4000" height_o="2649" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/576da7b5a01cbfd1d7c2fabbe334cdb48ba0e900e6c7346b073436a1ac43180f/1.Closed-to-the-Public_2014_documentation1.jpg" data-mid="151686952" border="0" data-scale="95" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/576da7b5a01cbfd1d7c2fabbe334cdb48ba0e900e6c7346b073436a1ac43180f/1.Closed-to-the-Public_2014_documentation1.jpg" /> <img width="2835" height="1890" width_o="2835" height_o="1890" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fef2cad721e32d1d9e28dd133a258789988226bbb59fb10f5342bd0697183cff/Closed-to-the-Public.jpg" data-mid="151686918" border="0" data-scale="95" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/fef2cad721e32d1d9e28dd133a258789988226bbb59fb10f5342bd0697183cff/Closed-to-the-Public.jpg" /> <img width="1920" height="1278" width_o="1920" height_o="1278" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/42c5474ec28a0fc4c1887a10a5dd2ee3610d1b0287730a14933ee3b85ca9214b/MnK-Geschlossen_9452_web.jpg" data-mid="151687090" border="0" data-scale="94" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/42c5474ec28a0fc4c1887a10a5dd2ee3610d1b0287730a14933ee3b85ca9214b/MnK-Geschlossen_9452_web.jpg" /> <img width="1920" height="1278" width_o="1920" height_o="1278" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/15fd2dec8eb71f64d9adbfbe3928243e3894303b064a06c6a50eb4d578935d8a/MnK-Geschlossen_9051web.jpg" data-mid="151686987" border="0" data-scale="94" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/15fd2dec8eb71f64d9adbfbe3928243e3894303b064a06c6a50eb4d578935d8a/MnK-Geschlossen_9051web.jpg" /> <img width="1920" height="1278" width_o="1920" height_o="1278" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/557d4ac4cc47d8bbe9f76bb0c1384328962695f1e058c5e2d4312cbf0212a720/MnK-Geschlossen_9351_web.jpg" data-mid="151687036" border="0" data-scale="94" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/557d4ac4cc47d8bbe9f76bb0c1384328962695f1e058c5e2d4312cbf0212a720/MnK-Geschlossen_9351_web.jpg" /> <img width="4626" height="3079" width_o="4626" height_o="3079" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/19c4ea8c1f34ec5fba82bcf3f9887bc3c5fad40d96833d50c8727f895aa81ddf/MnK-Geschlossen_9416.jpg" data-mid="151608890" border="0" data-scale="94" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/19c4ea8c1f34ec5fba82bcf3f9887bc3c5fad40d96833d50c8727f895aa81ddf/MnK-Geschlossen_9416.jpg" /> <img width="1920" height="1278" width_o="1920" height_o="1278" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/988b0864d57545ca0b165f68adb7fa51fc9370dca40409256e580bc0d32a7214/MnK-Geschlossen_9437_web.jpg" data-mid="151687086" border="0" data-scale="94" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/988b0864d57545ca0b165f68adb7fa51fc9370dca40409256e580bc0d32a7214/MnK-Geschlossen_9437_web.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="1325" width_o="2000" height_o="1325" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2a45e8914b3740b6c48be93d75593284ae2c32521dd7e4af49ecc66f538dbf9c/3.Closed-to-the-Public_2014_documentation3.jpg" data-mid="151686955" border="0" data-scale="94" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2a45e8914b3740b6c48be93d75593284ae2c32521dd7e4af49ecc66f538dbf9c/3.Closed-to-the-Public_2014_documentation3.jpg" /> <img width="1400" height="1120" width_o="1400" height_o="1120" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/687c1eaefc6042155a405bd7e2a3308b7716bc50fc49cc91f1319df3b4e09b0c/4.Closed-to-the-public_2014_documentation4.jpg" data-mid="151686954" border="0" data-scale="83" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/687c1eaefc6042155a405bd7e2a3308b7716bc50fc49cc91f1319df3b4e09b0c/4.Closed-to-the-public_2014_documentation4.jpg" /> <img width="1920" height="1282" width_o="1920" height_o="1282" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4d5eb9f15bab0fae25e18e75758125bb0c7e3fe6abb0948878f280d51e82c9e5/20170729-P1010341.jpg" data-mid="151686867" border="0" data-scale="95" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4d5eb9f15bab0fae25e18e75758125bb0c7e3fe6abb0948878f280d51e82c9e5/20170729-P1010341.jpg" /> In August 2014, Amy Spiers with collaborator Catherine Ryan presented the work, Closed to the public (protecting space), at the 2014 Melbourne Art Fair, as part of the MAF Edge Program, Social Capital, curated by Jacqueline Doughty. For Closed to the Public the artists employed two professional security guards to prevent people from entering a 2 x 2 meter area demarcated with white tape on the floor of the Royal Exhibition Building during the Art Fair. If patrons to the Art Fair accidentally or deliberately crossed into the space, security guards used the powers available to them to people move on.&nbsp;The space was relocated daily around different areas of the Art Fair.A second iteration of Closed to the Public (protecting space) was presented in Freiburg, Germany in February 2016 as part of the Museum für Neue Kunst public program Während der Ausstellung ist das Museum geschlossen/During the exhibition the gallery will be closed.&nbsp;Over four days, a group of 2 to 5 security guards were hired&nbsp;to protect&nbsp;selected areas of public space within Freiburg and prevent the public from&nbsp;entering. The spaces were&nbsp;demarcated with tape and ranged in size from 2 x 2 metres to 4 x 4 metres.&nbsp;When the public crossed over the tape, the security guards firmly told them to desist and move on.A third iteration occured in Greece at Corinth Art Platform’s Art Panegyri on 29 July 2017. The work aims to direct attention to the increased regulation and control of the movements of the public, and provoke thought about how this is enforced, from the repressive presence of private security operators to the mundane signage and markings that are used to control our everyday movement in urban environments. The work intends to question what spaces are still available to the free movement and assembly of the public.A review of the Melbourne Art Fair in Ocula magazine described Closed to the Public as “the most watchable work in the fair”. Closed to the public is part of a series of works Amy and Catherine created that explore the policing and control of what can and can’t appear in public space. These works include the public order choreographies:&nbsp;Nothing to See Here (Dispersal) presented at the 2014 Festival of Live Art; Ordering the Public&nbsp;as part of the 2015 Vienna Biennale’s Performing Public Art Festival; No More Public Space, Only Public Order (Water Cannon) for 2016 MONA FOMA, Hobart; and The Least of the Doorkeepers (It is Possible but Not at the Moment) for Borders, Barriers, Walls exhibition at MUMA, Melbourne also in 2016. Futher information ︎&nbsp;Ocula Magazine Review ︎&nbsp;MAF in Focus video feature︎&nbsp;Während der Ausstellung ist das Museum geschlossen/During the exhibition the gallery will be closed.