Taking queer spaces, collaboration & communities in Brisbane as its point of departure, this panel discussion questioned how we might imagine a collective queer future.

Facilitated by 4ZZZ’s Dykes on Mykes, Ruth Gardner and Kate Mackie, panellists included exhibiting artist Tay Haggarty, visual artist, writer, and community event organiser Mo Chan, emerging artist and writer Shelley Cheng, and creative producer and DJ (Sweaty Baby) Thomas Parer. 

(Photo by Joe Ruckli)

Panel Discussion: Tay Haggarty | Queer spaces, collaboration & generating community in Brisbane

On the 20th anniversary of the Afghan war, journalist, author and film-maker Antony Loewenstein analyses the impact of the longest, US-led conflict in history in this online lecture. What’s been the impact on Afghan civilians, refugees, and the broader global community and how does Australia’s military role in the war fit into Afghanistan’s current trajectory?

Loewenstein was joined by Khadim Ali, one of Australia’s most acclaimed artists, known for his masterful works that poetically explore the experience of displaced people across the globe. A member of the persecuted Hazara ethnic minority, Ali is the third generation of his family to be exiled from his homeland of Afghanistan. Expressing the profound horror, grief and loss experienced under modern-day warfare, his exhibition is necessary and vital during a time where political propaganda, violence, and fear pervades global relations.

Antony Loewenstein on Afghanistan

Missile Park by Yhonnie Scarce is an exhibition at the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane which runs from 17 July to 18 September, 2021.

Recorded via video conference on the 27th of August, the artist is joined by IMA Executive Director Liz Nowell in conversation.

Yhonnie Scarce was born in Woomera, South Australia in 1973, and belongs to the Kokatha and Nukunu peoples. Scarce is a master glass-blower, which she puts to the service of spectacular and spectral installations ranging from the intimate to the architectural, each full of aesthetic, cultural and political significance. Her work also engages the photographic archive and found objects to explore the impact and legacies of colonial and family histories and memory.

Missile Park is a survey exhibition co-commissioned by the IMA with ACCA, Melbourne. It brings together work from the last 15 years of Scarce’s practice, alongside a major new commission from which the exhibition takes its name.

In Conversation, Yhonnie Scarce

How do First Nations artists approach representation in public spaces?

Taking artist Yhonnie Scarce‘s new commission 'Missile Park' as a starting point, Blaklash co-founder Troy Casey, with architect Kevin O’Brien, and artists Judy Watson, and Tony Albert, explore the intersection of architecture, memorial culture, and the representation of First Nations histories in their own projects and practices.

Monumentalisation: conveying cultural narratives with installation and public art

Nina Sanadze received a special commendation for her work 'Apotheosis' in the churchie emerging art prize 2021. The exhibition was curated by Grace Herbert and judged by Rhana Devenport, Director of the Art Gallery of South Australia. 

Audio Described by Jan Pyke
Image by Joe Ruckli

Audio Description | Nina Sanadze, 'Apotheosis' (2021)

Audio descriptions and interpretive texts from select works in 'This language that is every stone'.

Audio Description: 'Switching Codes' by Shireen Taweel

Exhibition Overview: 'This language that is every stone'

Listen to Aha Ensemble in conversation with Professor Bree Hadley as they discuss their newly commissioned participatory installation Absolutely Everybody Judges.

In Conversation | Aha Ensemble and Bree Hadley

Join Sydney-based independent curator and guest judge for ‘the churchie’ Sebastian Goldspink, for this talk which details the realisation of his most recent project, the 2022 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Free/State for the Art Gallery of South Australia. Goldspink unpacks the journey of a biennial from ideation to realisation. The 2022 Adelaide Biennial featured 25 prominent Australian artists from every state and territory across multiple generations from emerging to established.

Talk | Sebastian Goldspink: Anatomy Of A Biennial

Join us for this accessible and generative conversation about contemporary art and psychoanalysis, grounded in the development of Natalya Hughes exhibition The Interior. Natalya Hughes is joined by clinical psychologist Dr Andrew Geeves and author and academic Professor Susan Best to talk about what psychoanalysis is and how it is useful in a contemporary context.

The Interior evokes an exaggerated consultation room, playfully furnished for psychoanalysis. The forms and decorative surfaces of the works in this installation reference the consultation room and practices of the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. Given the abundance of imagery which The Interior draws from Freud’s work, we will ponder the question, how can art be informed by psychoanalysis and psychoanalysis informed by art?

In Conversation | Natalya Hughes, Andrew Geeves, and Sue Best: Art And Psychoanalysis

Audio Description | Trum's Legacy/Yellafella

In this audio mediation, Marjetica talks about the referendum for water rights in Slovenia in 2021 and her collaboration with Uncle Ray Woods to make 2 visual essays titled The Rights of a River and The Life of the Lachlan River. The drawings tell of the struggles of two rivers in different parts of the world: the Soča River in Slovenia and the Lachlan River in Australia, in New South Wales. She invites the listener to consider rivers as a subject with whom we can foster a relationship with, rather than an object.

Audio Meditation | Marjetica Potrč: How to meet a river

In this mediation, Hanna invites you to be transported to the mouth of the River Ythan in Aberdeenshire Scotland. A large colony of grey and common seals call out from the estuary banks. The sound of their calls are carried in the wind. 

Hanna shares two traditional seal-calling songs, and teaches an extract from one of these which she works with in her seal calling improvisations. 

This traditional Scottish Gaelic seal-calling song comes from the collection of Marjory Kennedy Fraser, an early twentieth century folklorist. It is a simple song created entirely from wordless sounds that imitate the grey seal's singing.

Audio Meditation | Hanna Tuulikki: How to meet a seal

Casino Wake Up Time member, Kylie Caldwell, shares three poems which she has written about native plants and the diverse waterways which sustain them on Bundjalung country in the Northern Rivers.

Nanna You Remember! is a poem about wetlands, and the animals and plants within these wetlands. It’s a place where the weaving fibre, buckie rush, is collected. Kylie shares that wetlands are one of the most valuable ecosystems which act as reservoirs to collect water during big rains, reducing the effects of flooding. They protect coastal areas from storm surges by securing fragile soil and sand, and purify water by acting as a filter. Kylie dedicates this poem to her ancestors, who held a wealth of knowledge about these ecosystems.

Picking Again is a poem about Casino Wake Up Time collecting rushes and other plants for weaving.

A Survivor is a poem about lomandra, a plant that plays a significant role in supporting the banks of rivers and creeks and keeping these waters healthy and strong.

Audio Meditation | Kylie Caldwell: How to meet a plant

This audio tour developed by Jan Pyke will describe a walk through of the three gallery spaces, stopping to describe key works in each room. This is followed by a short excerpt of text from the exhibition broadsheet, written by Raphaela Rosella, to aid interpretation.

In Australia and across the globe demands are growing for a society in which prisons and policing are no longer the default solution to address social, economic, and political issues in our communities. Despite this, systems of surveillance, classification, and control extend far beyond prison walls, parole boards, and courtrooms. They are embedded in archives, bureaucratic procedures, and the subsequent documents that record an individual’s lived experience. Unveiling the ineptitude of ‘official records’, You’ll Know It When You Feel It is a socially engaged art project that seeks to resist bureaucratic representations of women whose lives intersect with the prison-industrial complex.

Co-created by Brisbane based artist Raphaela Rosella, this intimate work has emerged over fifteen years alongside several women in her life. From six-minute phone calls to handwritten letters that circulate between Rosella, her friends, family members, and loved ones, the multi-authored exhibition examines the value of their co-created archive as a site of resistance.

Audio Described Tour | You'll Know It When You Feel It

Audio description of Daniel Boyd's sculpture ‘Untitled (DR)’ (2023).

Audio Description: Daniel Boyd 'Untitled (DR)' 2023

Audio description of Daniel Boyd's painting 'Untitled (SPSIDKAATYDC)' (2023).

Audio Description: Daniel Boyd 'Untitled (SPSIDKAATYDC)' 2023

Audio descriptions of selected works in Daniel Boyd's painting 'Untitled (NAIFAG)' (2023).

Audio Description: Daniel Boyd 'Untitled (NAIFAG)' 2023

Audio description of Daniel Boyd's mirrored floor installation 'Untitled' (2023).

Audio Description: Daniel Boyd 'Untitled' 2023

Audio description of Daniel Boyd's painting 'Untitled (FLICSAIBE)' (2023).

Audio Description: Daniel Boyd 'Untitled (FLICSAIBE)' 2023

Publishing for over a decade, VAULT is Australia’s leading glossy art quarterly. The magazine profiles the work of prominent artists from Australasia and beyond, with forays into areas such as fashion, architecture, and literature.

Hear VAULT Editor-in-Chief Alison Kubler in conversation with IMA Director Robert Leonard on the occasion of the launch of VAULT no. 44: The Future Issue.

Looking to artists at the vanguard for a sense of the future of art and society, this issue profiles the work of Serwah Attafuah, Michael Candy, Boris Eldagsen, Jenny Holzer, Patricia Piccinini, Agnieszka Pilat, Jordan Wolfson, and more.

In Conversation | Alison Kubler and Robert Leonard

Audio description of Justine Youssef's multi-sensory installation 'Somewhat Eternal' (2023).

Audio Description | Justine Youssef: Somewhat Eternal

Listen to author Melanie Saward (Bigambul, Wakka Wakka) present a new story written in response to Daniel Boyd's exhibition Rainbow Serpent (Version).

Saward's debut novel, Burn, was published to critical acclaim in 2023, and her second novel, Love Unleashed, will be published by Penguin Random House in 2024. Her writing has been published in Griffith Review, Meanjin, and Flock: First Nations Stories Then and Now alongside leading Aboriginal writers, and shortlisted for numerous awards.

Storytelling | Melanie Saward: Little Stories

Curated and hosted by author Ellen van Neerven (Mununjali), Poetic Intentions welcomed several First Nations poets and writers to share their work on the expansive stage in Daniel Boyd's exhibition Rainbow Serpent (Version).

Listen back to an evening of spoken works from Darby Jones, Cheryl Leavy, Aurora Liddle-Christie, Yasmin Smith, Vika Mana, and Joella Warkill.

Poetry Reading | Poetic Intentions with Ellen van Neerven

This panel discussion was recorded following a screening of the Khaled Hourani's film Picasso in Palestine (2012). Hear Miriam Deprez (photojournalist and PhD candidate, Griffith University), Dr Jamal Nabulsi (diaspora Palestinian writer and researcher), and Remah Naji (Member, Justice for Palestine, Magan-djin) in conversation, facilitated by Dr Samid Suliman (Senior Lecturer, Migration and Security at Griffith University).

This discussion contextualises the film against the decades-long history of the occupation of Palestine, reflects on the im/mobilities that it documents, and instigates an important discussion of the role and duty of the arts to act (transnationally and transversally) against dispossession, occupation, state violence, and genocide.

Panel Discussion | Picasso In Palestine

An artist talk by Patrick Staff followed by a conversation with IMA’s Executive Directors Aileen Burns and Johan Lundh. This talk took place at the IMA Thursday, 13 August, at 6pm.

Artist Talk, Patrick Staff

This is the sixth presentation in a series of talks running throughout the year titled 'What Can Art Institutions Do'?

Born in Poland, Lewandowska now divides her time between London, UK, and Hong Kong. Through collaborative projects she has explored the public function of archives, collections and exhibitions in an age of privatisation. She was Professor of Art in the Public Realm at Konstfack, Stockholm 2003–2013, where she established Timeline: Artists’ Film and Video Archive. In 2014 she was Visiting Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Throughout 2014/15 she is Artist in Residence at the Asia Art Archive in Hong Kong.

What Can Art Institutions Do?: Marysia Lewandowska

The IMA is pleased to present a talk by art historian Ian McLean. This is the seventh presentation in a series of talks running throughout the year titled 'What Can Art Institutions Do?', and features a response by Brisbane artist, Richard Bell.

26/09/2015

What Can Art Institutions Do?: Ian Mclean with a response by Richard Bell

Artists are always falling prey to something or other. Censorship, curators, bad lighting, jet lag, bigotry, cultural prejudice, institutions in particular, and The Institution At Large. 

This talk traces the role and political rationale of self-marginalisation within the moral economy of contemporary art.

08/11/2016

The Artist As Quarry: Tirdad Zolghadr

British art historian, curator, writer and teacher, David Elliott, at the IMA as part of the 21st Biennale of Sydney’s Biennale Archive Stories. Elliott will share his experiences as a prolific director of museums and biennales, including the 17th Biennale of Sydney.

David Elliott - 21st Biennale of Sydney Archive Stories

Dale Harding in conversation with IMA Directors Aileen Burns and Johan Lundh, discussing Harding’s survey exhibition, 'Current Iterations'.

Current Iterations brings together new and recent works, focusing on shared languages permeating landscape, bodies, and objects. This conversation will address the works on display at the IMA, as well as wider concerns in Harding’s practice.

In Conversation, Dale Harding

Founding member of Raqs Media Collective, Shuddhabrata Sengupta, in conversation with independent curator and writer Tess Maunder. Sengupta and Maunder discuss how the collective operates as artist-curators, the group’s approach to managing biennales and artist-run spaces, and their role as critical voices in the global south.

In Conversation, Raqs Media Collective and Tess Maunder

IMA Belltower artist Sancintya Mohini Simpson is joined in conversation with historian and curator Imelda Miller, bringing to fore the colonial practice of forced and indentured labour and tracing its impacts to the present day.

Simpson and Miller use their own archival research practices and exhibition-making as a tool to bring their ancestral stories to light and act as a sites of acknowledgement, commemoration, and healing.

The discussion explores the often-absented stories of ‘blackbirding’ South Sea Islander communities—a practice of kidnapping and forced labour on sugar cane farms in Australia—and the parallel history of Indian indentured labour forced to work in South African sugar cane farms. Simpson and Miller draw these stories into the complicated narrative of colonialism and contemporary society.

In Conversation, Sancintya Mohini Simpson & Imelda Miller: The Legacy of Indentured Labour

Founded in 1975, the IMA is the longest-running contemporary art space of its kind in Australia. As one of the country’s first non-collecting public galleries, the IMA has played an integral role in developing contemporary art in Queensland, Australia, and internationally.

Institute of Modern Art

Popular tracks