Join us for the launch of CoUNTess: Spoiling Illusions Since 2008, a new publication by writer Melinda Rackham and artist Elvis Richardson.

Since 2008, Richardson’s blog CoUNTess: Women count in the art-world has published data and commentary on gender representation within Australian contemporary visual arts. In book form, CoUNTess combines statistical analysis with cultural and feminist theory to chart how the education of artists, the role of galleries and museums, art prizes, magazines, curators, collectors, and philanthropists contribute to an art world where women and non-binary people miss out.

Rackham and Richardson bring decades of data to life in bold and brash colour. CoUNTess is no dry statistical survey — it is commentary of the biting kind, enlivened with witty humour and pithy observations.

Hear the co-authors in conversation, and take home your copy of this unflinching publication.

COVID-19 Advice

The IMA strongly encourages mask-wearing onsite in the galleries and for events to keep our community safe. If you are displaying symptoms of COVID-19 or are feeling unwell, please stay home. ⁠

Accessibility

We are committed to making the IMA accessible to people of all abilities, their families, and carers, as well as visitors of different ages and different backgrounds.

The gallery entrance is on the ground floor of the Judith Wright Arts Centre, on Berwick Street. There is wheelchair access and an accessible toilet with baby changing facilities also located on the ground floor, and we welcome guide and support dogs.

If you plan to attend this event and have specific support needs we can accommodate, please contact engagement@ima.org.au, call (07) 3252 5750, or ask our friendly staff on-site. Read our access information for visitors here.⁠

Guest Biographies

Melinda Rackham (she/her) is an artist, curator, and writer based in Kaurna/Adelaide. Her impact on global networked media stems from her poetic writings on networked intimacy and identity, now held in collections across the world, to her founding of -empyre- forum, which continues today as a vital critical platform for academics, artists, collectors, curators, and writers. Rackham was the first Networked Art curator at the Australian Centre of Moving Image, Naarm/Melbourne; led Australia’s foremost art and technology organization, the Australian Network for Art and Technology; and currently holds an Adjunct Research position in the School of Art Architecture and Design at the University of South Australia.

Elvis Richardson (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist living and working in Naarm/Melbourne on the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. Richardson collects and curates objects and imagery of everyday life, reconstructing raw materials from public sources to comment on taste, class, and the realities of being a working artist. Richardson is the founding editor of CoUNTess, a blog publishing data on gender representation in the Australian visual arts sector.