FEM-aFFINITY #1: Catherine Bell on inclusion and collaboration

02/04/21 • 21 min

What are the links between feminism, contemporary art and disability? FEM-aFFINITY, a new three-part podcast series, delves into this question by focussing on an exhibition of the same title.

First exhibited in 2019, FEM-aFFINITY is a collaborative, female-led show. It features a series of collaborations between seven female artists who practice from Melbourne’s Arts Project Australia, a studio and gallery for artists with an intellectual disability, and seven female contemporary artists.

This first episode features artist, curator and academic Catherine Bell who not only curated the exhibition, but made the collaborations happen.

Bell talks about the process behind the show, as well as the subjective nature of feminism and what the word means to her. She also discusses how she became familiar with Arts Project Australia, her collaborations with artist Cathy Staughton, and what it means to break down art world structures to give a voice to marginalised artists.

FEM-aFFINITY is a nationally touring exhibition, and is currently showing at Melbourne’s Bunjil Place Gallery. Exhibiting artists include; Bronwyn Hack, Cathy Staughton, Dorothy Berry, Eden Menta, Fulli Andrinopoulos, Heather Shimmen, Helga Groves, Jane Trengove, Janelle Low, Jill Orr, Lisa Reid, Prudence Flint, Wendy Dawson and Yvette Coppersmith.

FEM-aFFINITY
Bunjil Place Gallery
30 January—14 March
Riddoch Art Gallery
22 May—4 July

Benalla Art Gallery
6 August—17 October

This series is kindly sponsored by NETS Victoria who are nationally touring FEM-aFFINITY, assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body.

Produced and presented by Tiarney Miekus. Engineered by Patrick Telfer. Music by Mino Peric.

What are the links between feminism, contemporary art and disability? FEM-aFFINITY, a new three-part podcast series, delves into this question by focussing on an exhibition of the same title.

This first episode features artist, curator and academic Catherine Bell who not only curated the exhibition, but made the collaborations happen.

FEM-aFFINITY
Bunjil Place Gallery
30 January—14 March
Riddoch Art Gallery
22 May—4 July

Benalla Art Gallery
6 August—17 October

Produced and presented by Tiarney Miekus. Engineered by Patrick Telfer. Music by Mino Peric.

Previous Episode

The Long Run #3: John Wolseley on revealing landscapes for 60 years

For over 60 years John Wolseley has been visiting, capturing and sharing his experience of landscapes. But what does it mean to create and innovate over six decades? And what can Wolseley teach us about the life-stages of an artist?

Art Guide Australia’s newest podcast series The Long Run considers this question with artists who have had careers spanning 60 years, each reflecting on their art and lives.

In this third episode Wolseley, one of Australia’s most well-known landscape painters and printmakers, speaks to us from his home in regional Victoria. Moving to Australia from England in 1976, he’s known for immersing himself in an environment before painting it, capturing landscapes ranging from the mountains in Tasmania, to wetlands and rivers, to the floodplains of Arnhem land. Known as a great storyteller, Wolseley captures worlds that invite engagement with nature and the environment.

In this episode Wolseley talks about how he came of age when England was coming out of World War II, and his experience of growing up on a farm and later attending boarding school. The artist also talks about studying under prestigious artists, what it takes for a landscape to capture his attention, and how he balances an environmental awareness in his work without being didactic. And finally, Wolseley tells us what having a 60-year practice feels like, and whether he’s optimistic about the future.

If you like this conversation, you can listen to the first episode where avant-garde painter Gareth Sansom talks about chance in making art, and his feelings on mortality and time; and in episode two hear Wendy Stavrianos discuss her experience of being a female landscape painter.

This series is kindly sponsored by Leonard Joel Auctioneers and Valuers, based in Melbourne and Sydney.

Produced and presented by Tiarney Miekus, music and engineering by Mino Peric.

John Wolseley is represented Roslyn Oxley9, Sydney and Australian Galleries, Melbourne.

Next Episode

FEM-aFFINITY #2: Janelle Low on creative relationships and otherness

What does it mean to create art between two cultures? What relationships are formed when artists collaborate? What are the links between feminism, contemporary art and disability? These questions, and more, are explored in the second episode of our newest podcast series FEM-aFFINITY, featuring a very honest and intimate conversation with photographer Janelle Low.

This podcast takes its name from an exhibition with the same title: FEM-aFFINITY is also a collaborative, female-led show that first began in 2019. It features a series of collaborations between seven female artists who practice from Melbourne’s Arts Project Australia, a studio and gallery for artists with an intellectual disability, and seven female contemporary artists.

Low is one of the exhibiting artists in FEM-aFFINITY who collaborated with Arts Project artist Eden Menta, producing a series of vivid and poignant photographs. Low talks about this collaboration—the friendship, humour and life experiences that gave it strength—while also discussing her upbringing and art world experiences, and being the youngest person (and second female) to win the National Photographic Portrait Prize in 2013.

Low is of Peranakan/Teochew heritage, and both of her parents migrated from Singapore. Low discusses how her work explores a sense of otherness between her cultural heritage and Western upbringing, and she further talks about navigating the art world as a person of colour, and why institutions need to curate diverse exhibitions with genuineness.

FEM-aFFINITY is a nationally touring exhibition and is currently showing at Melbourne’s Bunjil Place Gallery. Exhibiting artists include; Bronwyn Hack, Cathy Staughton, Dorothy Berry, Eden Menta, Fulli Andrinopoulos, Heather Shimmen, Helga Groves, Jane Trengove, Janelle Low, Jill Orr, Lisa Reid, Prudence Flint, Wendy Dawson and Yvette Coppersmith.

FEM-aFFINITY
Bunjil Place Gallery
30 January—14 March
Riddoch Art Gallery
22 May—4 July

Benalla Art Gallery
6 August—17 October

This series is kindly sponsored by NETS Victoria who are nationally touring FEM-aFFINITY, assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body.

Produced and presented by Tiarney Miekus. Engineered by Patrick Telfer. Music by Mino Peric.