When protest adopts masks, camouflage, and warning colouration, does individual agency disappear—or is it precisely through becoming surface, pattern, and swarm that collective power emerges?

Join Dr Chari Larsson in conversation with Dr Laini Burton, moderated by Dr Rae Haynes, as they delve into Deep Surface—the exhibition and monograph capturing 30 years of creative practice.

Reflecting on collectivity, anonymity, and identity within Jemima Wyman's practice, this panel will examine how these themes converge in contemporary art and across the wider cultural landscape.

This discussion invites you to rethink how power, resistance, and political agency operate in an image-saturated, surveilled world.

Dr Chari Larsson is Senior Lecturer in Art History and Theory at the Queensland College of Art and Design. Her research focuses on theories of images and trauma, twentieth century French intellectual history, and philosophies of representation. Her current research project is investigating civilian experiences during war and conflict. Chari’s books include Didi-Huberman and the Image (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2020). She has published in journals such as the Journal of Art Historiography, Senses of Cinema and Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society. Chari is a member of the international research network ‘Logic of the Negative’. This two-year research project is supported by Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Université Catholique de Louvain, Université de Fribourg and aims to promote a renewed reflection on imprinting. Chari was commissioned to provide a critical text for the Jemima Wyman: Deep Surface monograph entitled, Rising to the Surface.

Dr Laini Burton is Senior Lecturer in Art History and Theory at the Queensland College of Art and Design, Griffith University, Australia. Her research centres on contemporary visual art practices, bio-art and design, fashion theory, performance, and body/spatial relations. Her book, Masked: Anonymity, Empowerment, and Identity in Fashion and Popular Culture, will be published by Bloomsbury, London, in 2026.

Dr Rae Haynes is a contemporary artist and educator who lives and works in Meanjin/ Brisbane, Australia. Rae’s art practice engages with feminist archives, collective agency and care ethics by examining the social and personal constructs of language and gender. Rae completed a Doctor of Philosophy in Visual Arts (2009) with the support of an Australian Postgraduate Award for research at the Queensland University of Technology, and is now a Senior Lecturer (Contemporary Art/ Visual Arts) at QUT. Rae was presented with a Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning at the 2025 Australian Awards for University Teaching.

Image: Jemima WYMAN Flourish 5 (detail) 2019 hand-cut digital photographs on paper Courtesy of the artist and Sullivan+Strumpf, Gadigal/Sydney and Naarm/Melbourne.

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