Help us celebrate the launch of Totem Towers, the UTS Library's 2023 Creative in Residence work by Raquel Caballero.

Join us for an inspiring evening of artist talks, drinks and interactive art play. Get a behind-the-scenes look at the Creative in-Residence program, meet with the artist, learn more about the process involved in the creation of the Totem Towers all in our beautiful UTS Library Reading Room.

“The Totem Towers of the UTS Library are a reminder of what you can accomplish when your brain is bursting with visual information, a wild imagination and an uncontrollable urge to have FUN. And let’s not forget our greatest tools: our hands.” - Raquel Caballero, 2023 Creative in Residence.

Open to all UTS staff, students, researchers, members of the GLAM sector and members of the public.

Please RSVP by Thursday, 27 June, 2024 for catering purposes.

Event details

5:30pm Enjoy complimentary nibbles and drinks on arrival.

6:00pm Artist talk with Raquel Caballero.

7:00pm View the artwork and chitty chat.

About The Totem Towers of the UTS Library

Created by artist Raquel Caballero during the 2023 Creative in Residence program at UTS Library, The Totem Towers are informed and inspired by the visual imagery found in the library’s book collection.

Situated in the library’s light-filled reading room, they are a celebration of vernacular architecture and the radical aesthetics of the decorative art environments of self-taught artists. As such, Raquel’s work follows a folk tradition of artmaking that is organic, personal, unrestrained, and uncontained by the white cube of the formal gallery.

Made of papier-mâché using recycled materials and brightly painted, the Totem Towers are monuments to what Raquel calls "hardcore craft" – that is, a worship of, and obsessive dedication to the handmade, using unconventional mediums. By working with papier-mâché, the artist intends to show the endless possibilities of building with economical materials, to create art that’s universal.

In today’s trend toward cityscapes devoid of colour and a human touch, The Totem Towers are anti high-tech, fun, fanciful follies that transmit joy and awe triggered by the viewer’s awareness of the cosmic potentials of the imagination.

About the Artist

Raquel Caballero’s practice is rooted in her fascination with the excesses found in popular and folk cultures. She is also inspired by maximalist and amateur aesthetics. Working primarily with papier-mâché, textiles and recycled materials, she makes objects of reverence that celebrate human-made fantasies and follies with 'traditional crafts'.

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