Moon Girle, 'A Tra$hy Rhapsody'

You are invited to participate in 'A Tra$hy Rhapsody' – a fun and engaging space reflecting on mass-production, self-reflection, sharing, and gift-giving.

12 July to 14 August 2022
Opening night: Tuesday 12 July, 5.30-7.30pm. Free, but RSVP essential via Eventbrite.

Find out more about First Site Gallery at Open Day on Sunday 14 August.

Artist sitting amongst lots of colourful objects and fabrics in a big jumble, including a yellow birdcase, green leaves, a yellow dog toy, pink, blue, purple and green fabrics and fairy lights. Moon Girle, Trash God’s Abode (detail) 2021. Found and donated materials. Photo: Chris Bowes.

Welcome to an artificial garden-world; a gift to the senses. You are invited to participate in A Tra$hy Rhapsody, an immersive and fun sculptural installation, to reflect on mass-production, self-reflection, sharing, and gift-giving. This sculptural installation explores ethical ways of reusing broken and unwanted objects that were gifted by the artist’s local community.

A Tra$hy Rhapsody is a social critique from the environment’s vantage point of waste. The grandiose artwork is interactive, site-specific and exaggerates the fundamental themes of ‘nostalgia’ and ‘nomadism’. It promotes an environment that explores a multitude of topics concerning circular economies, community, and self-exploration. The work allows a space for reflection on nostalgic dreams, stripping away the pressures of consumerism. 

Hunter-gatherer archetypes, and collection through social media were tactics employed to collect objects of organic and inorganic materials from concreted areas within Wurundjeri Country. These broken relics, once part of a larger whole, are now transformed into an eclectically colourful and awe-inspiring environment. Instructions will be provided if you would like to participate.

xox M.G.

Artist bio

Caity Girle is a multidisciplinary artist living in Naarm Melbourne, eager to find magic in the mundane. Her acute eye for detail helps her craft installations, sculptures, paintings, soundscapes, and textiles. Her explorations into methods and materials are forever in a state of flux; her one constant is colour.

Caity employs ‘hunter gatherer’ archetypes to collect objects that are re-imagined into new forms. Her work is pulled between physical reality and her imagination, aesthetically textural and vibrant which evolves as she makes.

Dark undertones are present in her theory, as she explores topics concerning circular economy, social behaviour, and authentic self. Densely layered objects and concepts to infantile tendencies of Western marketing ploys.

Right now, her interactive and grandiose structures, attempt to hold the essence of ‘home’, ‘nostalgia’, and ‘nomadism’. She intends to enable acts of 'exchange' between the communities’ participants allowing space for self-awareness and reflection, in a fun and engaging way.

aboriginal flag
torres strait flag

Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Luwaytini' by Mark Cleaver, Palawa.

aboriginal flag
torres strait flag

Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business.