Archives are Hot! – Monument Tour

Join Palawa man and artist researcher Dominic White (Trawlwoolway) and white settler artist researcher Amy Spiers on a tour of some of the monuments and public artworks around RMIT campus that will draw on both their research-based socially engaged, performative art practices.

Grounded in their different positionalities and mutual interest in the histories archived on our streets through commemorative public art, together they will prompt attendees to consider the shared pasts and embodied memories that are, and are not, evoked by the artworks in the city's (stolen) public spaces.

Artworks discussed include Standing By Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner (2016) by Brook Andrew and Trent Walter and Wurrunggi Biik: Law of the Land (2019) by Vicki Couzens.

This tour is part of Archives are Hot! Artists in the Archive: a two-day program of workshops, talks and activations. This event is a collaboration between Next Wave and CAST.

Dominic White

I am a Palawa, Trawoolway man, descendant of the Tyereelore, through my birth mother’s family. I am an adopted Kid and have been following a process of reclamation of my heritage and links to Tebrakunna country.

I am a multidisciplinary artist exploring connection, observation, responsibility, and obligation in different media. My work examines cultural, historical, and contemporary colonial interaction with First Nations people.

Currently, I am a PhD candidate at the RMIT School of Art. My research is engaged with Indigenous Ways of Knowing and Being, Yarning processes, Decolonisation structures, Praxis, and Social Engaged Art Practice.

Trained as a Printmaker, my work spans contemporary Printmaking, Sculpture, Photography, Performative acts, and contemporary Jewellery and design. Often, the material cultural context informs the work.

I am based in Bununerong /Boonwurung country (Mornington Peninsula), father of 2, and teach art to support my art making.

Amy Spiers

Amy Spiers is a white settler artist researcher of English, Scottish and European Jewish descent based on the unceded Country of the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung and Boon Wurrung peoples in Narrm (Melbourne, Australia). Spiers is a Senior Research Fellow at RMIT University School of Art and a current recipient of an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA), undertaking a 3-year research project exploring settler artists' roles and responsibilities towards truth-telling colonial injustices and affirming First Peoples' sovereignties. Spiers has recently co-edited the book, Art and Memorialisation: Truth-Telling Through Creative Practice in Settler Colonial Australia, with Worimi creative, cultural practitioner and oral historian, Genevieve Grieves. She is leader of RMIT University School of Art’s Contemporary Art and Social Transformation (CAST) research group.

Next Wave

Next Wave is a leading not-for-profit arts organisation dedicated to supporting early-career artists working across multiple art forms. Next Wave plays a defining role in the Australian arts landscape by empowering and advocating for early-career and experimental artistic practice in Australia.

This event is part of Next Wave's ALL School programming. ALL School is an artist-led learning program designed to facilitate knowledge sharing and idea swapping.

CAST

CAST produces art research that critically engages with social and public spheres with a particular interest in how artistic practices intersect with issues of equity, access and democracy.

Accessibility

The RMIT Garden Building is located at Level 5, Building 10, RMIT University 376-392 Swanston Street, Melbourne. This is a wheelchair accessible building with an elevator located behind Streat Cafe on Bowen Street (between Swanston and Russell streets).

Some on-street parking is available on LaTrobe Street. Trams operate along Swantson Street – get off at RMIT University stop and go to Bowen Street via La Trobe Street.

Artists in the Archive is supported by City of Melbourne