Inpatient by Tess Hider

08 Apr 2025 - 02 May 2025
11:00am - 05:00pm
FREE
Melbourne City
First Site Gallery Storey Hall Basement, 344 Swanston Street, Melbourne

First Site Gallery

Tess Hider shares personal experiences of disability and chronic pain, speaking to broader complex and intersectional realities of acquired disabilities.

Opening celebration night

Date:Wednesday 9 April

Time: 5-7pm

Tess Hider, Hip hole detail, (digital photo), 2024. Image courtesy of the artist

Inpatient by Tess Hider

Tess Hider shares personal experiences of disability and chronic pain, speaking to broader complex and intersectional realities of acquired disabilities. Inpatient features soft sculptures responding to her recent hip surgery, hospital stay, and recovery, as well as a lifetime of disability-related experiences. The large scale of the works bring attention to the realities of invisible illness, while the soft forms create a humorous, and comforting aesthetic that allows the topic of disability to be more approachable for the viewer. Shapes, colours and motifs associated with Tess’s experiences presented in Inpatient bring attention to the marginalisation of disabled communities and invite us to address ableism in society and offer greater accessibility through art.

Artist Biography

Tess Hider is a multidisciplinary artist working across installation, painting, and craft. Her work visualises personal experiences, emotions and feelings associated with disability and chronic pain, and the personal, social, financial, and political impacts. She uses humour, Pop art aesthetics, and large scale to engage with serious topics of pain, illness and medical spaces in a light-hearted way. Tess offers her own experiences to prompt conversations about wider disability awareness in society.

I feel the art I make gives the pain I experience a purpose. If I were to find a positive, I wouldn’t be able to make these works without my adverse life experience as influences.

– Tess Hider

Upcoming events

Monthly RMIT Games Day 2026

25 Jan 2026 - 14 Dec 2026

RMIT City campus

RMIT are back for RMIT Games Day 2026 tournaments!

Now accepting 2027 First Site Gallery project proposals

28 Sep 2026 - 01 Nov 2026

Are you an RMIT student with a creative project you’d like to share? We are calling for proposals from RMIT students, who are currently enrolled in the College of Design and Social Context, to exhibit in the 2027 First Site Gallery exhibition program.

Melbourne Fringe Opening Night Gala

29 Sep 2026

Beneath the glowing arches of RMIT University's iconic venue, The Capitol, the Melbourne Fringe Opening Night Gala crackles with life. A 90-minute spectacle of everything Fringe does best: bold ideas, high-voltage performances, and independent art with heat you can feel from the back row.

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 'Sentient' by Hollie Johnson, Gunaikurnai and Monero Ngarigo.

Learn more about our commitment to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples

Inpatient by Tess Hider