Resisting censorship and silencing by creative and cultural institutions

In the past two years, we have witnessed silence and censorship from cultural institutions, the media and arts organisations regarding the genocide in Gaza and pro-Palestinian advocacy. This panel will address how censorship has manifested in small and large ways, from the framing and policing of language to the cancellation of events and opportunities, and the withdrawal of funding and support for individuals and collectives. A variety of tactics have been used to resist censorship and silencing, including litigation, solidarity statements, creative responses, mobilising communities, organising counter-events, cultural boycotting and speaking up regardless of consequences. This event will begin with a screening of I Signed the Petition (2018), a short film by directed by Mahdi Fleifel followed by a panel discussion which will reflect upon tactics, what has been effective and the cultural conditions that have made them necessary. 

Fleifel's film is presented with generous support from the Palestinian Film Festival.

Panelists

Gabrielle de Vietri

Gabrielle de Vietri is the Greens State Member for Richmond. Prior to entering Parliament, Gabrielle was the Mayor of Yarra, a contemporary artist and an activist. In the face of ecological collapse and growing inequality, Gabrielle was prompted to run for parliament to contribute more urgently to the direct solutions to the problems we are facing. Gabrielle is well known for her truth-telling in Parliament about Palestine. In 2014, she also boycotted the Sydney Biennale as a participating artist, due to their partnership with Transfield, a company that managed offshore detention centres. She was also the founder of the Artists’ Committee, an informal association of sculptors, filmmakers, curators, writers, theatre makers, painters and designers, that made collaborative public work around the intersection of money, ethics and culture. Gabrielle’s final exhibition as an artist was in 2019, uncovering the thousands of links between the fossil fuels industry and the arts. 

Dr James Nguyễn

James Nguyễn works with video, writing, collaboration, and performance. Interested in broken languages of Modernist colonialism, cinematography, and diasporic larrikinism, Nguyen has a PhD from the University of NSW, and trained at the Sydney College of Arts, the National Art School, and UnionDocs Centre for Documentary Arts (NYC). He has exhibited at the National 2019, Next Wave Festival and ACE Open in Australia and has commissions from the Sydney Opera House, the Australian War Memorial and support from the Anne and Gordan Samstag Fellowship, Millumbuk Arts, the Clithroe Foundation, the Australian Council for the Arts, Create NSW, and Creative Victoria.

He continues to present and develop both highly acclaimed and lacklustre work locally and internationally, including in Footscray, Albury, Bankstown, Vienna, Berlin, Guangzhou, and Ho Chi Minh City.

Liang Luscombe

Liang Luscombe’s artistic practice encompasses puppetry and moving image that engage in a process of generative questioning of how images and film affect audiences. She received her MFA at Virginia Commonwealth University, USA and is PhD candidate in Fine Art at Monash University. She has been included in screenings at Night Gallery, Los Angeles; Artists Space, NYC; The Capitol, Melbourne; Table, Chicago; The Sunview Luncheonette NYC; ACMI, Melbourne; Composite, Melbourne; and the 51st Athens International Film + Video Festival. She has undertaken residencies at Rimbun Dahan, Kuala Lumpur, 2025; Spare Parts Puppet Theatre, Fremantle, 2025; Lemony S Puppetry Development Lab, Melbourne, 2024; EXPAND Adelaide Film Festival Lab, Adelaide, 2023; Bemis Center of Contemporary Arts, 2022; Chicago Artist Coalition’s HATCH residency program, Chicago, 2019; SOMA Summer, Mexico City, 2018; Australia Council Studio, British School at Rome, 2013; and Perth Institute of Contemporary Art Studio Residency, Perth, 2011. 

Dr Leslie Eastman

Dr Leslie Eastman is a visual artist and educator with extensive experience in academic teaching, leadership and practice-based creative research.

Eastman joined the program in Interior Design at RMIT in 2020 after having worked as a full-time lecturer for twenty years in the Department of Fine Art at Monash University Art Design and Architecture. Eastman maintains an ongoing innovative installation art practice with research exhibited regularly across public, commercial and artist-run exhibition spaces nationally and internationally. He has received critical acknowledgment and competitive funding from many arts funding bodies.

This event is hosted by RMIT University School of Art's Contemporary Art and Social Transformation (CAST) research group and the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access (IDEA) collective, Next Wave and Composite.