Of here by Michelle Stewart, Susan Buchanan, Deborah Fisher

20 May 2025 - 13 Jun 2025
11:00am - 05:00pm
FREE
First Site Gallery Storey Hall Basement, 344 Swanston Street, Melbourne

Of here - Taungurung forest, Birrarung, Naarm streets

With deep environmental concerns for the spaces we inhabit, Stewart, Buchanan, and Fisher, have come together to share experiences of place-based making that arise from strong personal links. Using the vernacular of contemporary jewellery and moving image, they collectively explore processes of noticing, gathering, recontextualising and creating by hand..

Underpinned by a deep sense of history, rigorous research, and a focus on the physicality and feeling of each of their local environments, their work incorporates collected objects, documentation in the landscape and in relation to the body to focus our attention on our presence in the environment, and our impact upon it.

With slow and deliberate methods of seeing, beholding and responding, the various places reveal their nuanced character that can only be observed through temporal connections. Through meticulous and sensitive use of materials and processes, questions of the ways we see, feel, and inhabit the spaces around us are embedded in the artists' works.

“Care and repair is central to our practices. Works are made by removing or drawing attention to discarded material, such as tennis balls in the Birrarung and beer bottles littering the forest, as well as the imposed materials, organic debris and the ‘earth-breathing’ concrete cracks that patinate the streets.”

Bringing together impressions of multiple landscapes that incorporate forests, waterways and urban settings to embody the particular overlaps, differences and similarities, Of Here offers contemplation of what it is, and what it means to be a part of the more than human in our time.

Deborah Fisher, River Bloom, 2024, photograph of environmental sculpture, image by Chris Bowes.

Michelle Stewart has formal training as a horticulturalist which informs her art practice. She advocates for her immediate environment through actions of care and reparation. Michelle spends much of her time immersed in the forest.

Susan Buchanan research project Urban Jewels considers the materiality of our shared urban spaces. Using traditional tools alongside modern technologies, the jewellery outcomes express how we engage with our surrounds and consider the future. She thinks we could do better.

Deborah Fisher’s research focus is Birrarung, a place of her own connection. Her research investigates whether objects engaging with the human body can draw attention to the ongoing colonisation of this landscape.

This exhibition is proudly part of NGV’s Melbourne Design Week.

Opening Hours

11am - 5pm Tuesday to Friday

Closed on public and University holidays

Additional event

Artist Floor Talk, Friday 23 May, 1-2pm, as part of Melbourne Design Week

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.

LAGUNA: A State of Becoming

05 Nov 2026

Join us for an exclusive preview of Laguna, a new visual and audio work by artist Alicia Wiley, and hear directly from Alicia about the ideas, memories and cultural histories that shape the work.

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

Of here by Michelle Stewart, Susan Buchanan, Deborah Fisher