Essay Club No.2: Llewellyn Millhouse on Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema

Join us at the IMA for Essay Club no. 2. with Llewellyn Millhouse.

Together, we'll discuss Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema by Laura Mulvey (1975). This seminal feminist text first introduced the concept of the 'male gaze', and uses psychoanalytic theory to argue that classic cinema is structured around male voyeurism and passive femininity.

Llewellyn will discuss the influence of Mulvey’s text on his work as an artist and the continued relevance of Mulvey’s thesis 50 years after its publication. After reflecting on the text, Llewellyn will facilitate a more general discussion on artist run spaces, working as an artist, and institutional arts work.

Join us for pizza and cold drinks. Everyone is welcome, but space is limited—registration is essential. We will email you the essay upon registration.

Reading group, meets salon, meets networking drinks. Join us at the IMA for Essay Club. Whether you’re a university student, emerging arts worker, artist, or someone who thinks critically about culture, there’s space at the table.   

Each session, our well-read friends from the neighbourhood will select a text that’s shaping their ideas, conversations, and approaches to contemporary arts practice. We dig into the ideas together, with a focus on how global conversations might translate locally.

Your Essay Club hosts for 2026 include Nicholas Aloisio-Shearer (Institute of Modern Art), Holly Anderson (Artist), Madeline Brewer (Institute of Modern Art), Elena Dias-Jayasinha (Museum of Brisbane), Holly Eddington (Milani Gallery), Jocelyn Flynn (UQ Art Museum), Tay Haggarty (Outer Space), Llewellyn Millhouse (Wreckers Artspace), and Holly Riding (State Library of Queensland).

Join the waitlist to be the first to know about open spaces, and upcoming sessions.