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Future U
RMIT Gallery
29 July 2021 - 26 February 2022
Future U explores what it means to be human during a time of rapid technological acceleration. The exhibition presents creative responses to developments in artificial intelligence, robotics and biotechnology. While innovation in these areas offers amazing possibilities, it also poses questions and presents challenges to our beliefs and values.
As humans we must navigate the complexity of technological change in the twenty-first century. The aspects that make us human, such as creativity, love and intelligence, are increasingly under threat as machines reveal themselves to be capable of surpassing human capacity. On one hand, we applaud technology for its ability to prolong our lives, and yet we also mistrust it and fear its capacity to take away our usefulness and unique abilities as humans.
The dreams, speculations and possible nightmares offered by artists, designers and researchers provide a glimpse of a contradictory, messy future that is both unlimited and unruly. But it is also a future which embraces the possibilities of a body and a world that extends beyond our current limitations.
Curated by: Jonathan Duckworth and Evelyn Tsitas.
Artists, designers and researchers include: Bettina von Arnim, Holly Block, Karen Casey, Duckworth Hullick Duo, Peter Ellis, Jake Elwes, Alexi Freeman, Libby Heaney, Leah Heiss and Emma Luke, Pia Interlandi, Amy Karle, Mario Klingemann, Zhuying Li, Christian Mio Loclair, Maina-Miriam Munsky, Patricia Piccinini, Stelarc, Uncanny Valley, and Deborah Wargon.
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Jenny Banister Raids the Archives
RMIT Gallery (Virtual Exhibition)
9 March - 8 May 2021
Iconic fashion designer Jenny Bannister started her own label in Melbourne at the height of the 1970s radical fashion movement. Inspired by punk, her label Jenny Bannister Fashion was known for its distinctive and creative approach to design that incorporated plastic, metal, fur and found objects.
Bannister led the recycled fashion movement and in 1986, she was picked in a group of designers to represent emerging Australian fashion for US department store Neiman Marcus. Her clothes evolved into couture and contemporary evening wear with a loyal celebrity following.
Major art galleries and museums and private collections around the world have snapped up Bannister’s designs for their archives, including the National Gallery of Victoria, Australian National Gallery, Powerhouse Museum, and Washington’s Smithsonian.
Now the designer – and RMIT alumnus – is taking a good look inside RMIT’s own Cultural Collections to curate an exhibition that reflects RMIT University’s history as an incubator of design in all its forms.
In 1970 Andy Warhol was invited by the Rhode Island School of Design to curate Raid the Icebox, an exhibition with works from the collection. The results were unconventional and surprising.
Fast forward some 50 years later, what will legendary punk designer Jenny Bannister discover when she raids the RMIT Art Collection and RMIT Design Archives?
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Pattern and Print: Easton Pearson Archive
RMIT Gallery
9 March - 8 May 2021
Pattern and Print: Easton Pearson Archive is a celebration of the internationally acclaimed fashion house Easton Pearson.
Easton Pearson was at the cutting edge of international fashion between 1998 and 2016. The success of the Brisbane fashion house hinged on the creative relationship between Pamela Easton and Lydia Pearson, whose unique ways of working fostered inventive designs, lasting collaborations, and supported ethical manufacture.
As well as creating its own textile designs, setting it apart from other Australian fashion houses, Easton Pearson also worked with individual artists to create unique designs which ranged from colourful Indian hand beading, bold digital prints of original artworks, or designs painted by hand directly onto a finished dress.
Pattern and Print: Easton Pearson Archive highlights Easton Pearson’s collaborative approach, featuring a selection of vibrant garments that highlight the technical innovations, bespoke fabric, bold prints and embellishment choices of the fashion house over its remarkable 28-year history.
The garments are complemented by a custom mural by Brisbane-based painter, illustrator and long-time Easton Pearson collaborator, Stephen Mok, who created window designs for the label’s flagship store, hand painting patterns onto garments, and decorating accessories and props for the runway. His playful aesthetic presents the fantastical world of Easton Pearson, where both simplicity and detail shine, and artistry triumphs.
A touring exhibition organised by Museum of Brisbane (MoB), toured by Museums & Galleries Queensland.
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government’s Visions of Australia program.
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The Image Looks Back
RMIT Gallery (Virtual Exhibition)
5 January - 6 February 2021
In an era of post truth, fake news, and manipulated images, The Image Looks Back explores the reconfiguration of photography, asking how notions of visual truth and human experience are shaped by new technologies of vision.
If the photograph has conventionally been understood as a record or memory of the world, what happens when the image looks back?
Curated by Alison Bennett, Shane Hulbert, Rebecca Najdowski and Daniel Palmer
Artists: Jacqueline Felstead, Joan Fontcuberta, Forensic Architecture, Generative Photography (Adam Brown, Tabea Iseli, Alan Warburton), Mike Gray, Joe Hamilton, Thomas Hirschhorn, Rhonda Holberton, Fei Jun, Amalia Lindo, Rosa Menkman, Tyler Payne, Queertech.io, Joachim Schmid and Winnie Soon.
Part of PHOTO 2021 International Festival of Photography.
