This major project investigated how curatorial research and the commissioning process can be employed to offer new understandings of suburban communities and the role history plays in cultural formation. Concentrating on the City of Kingston in the south of Melbourne, a curatorial frame was devised that enabled six leading Australian artists to work with local community groups to realise artworks that spoke to the complex, rich and interwoven social fabrics and places of this region. Concentrating on the period of the mid 1970s to early 1980s the curatorial frame identified key case studies events such as the election of Moorabbin’s first female councillor in 1976, a selection of nationally famous political protests in 1982, and the disappearance of aviator Fred Velentich who flew out from Moorabbin airport in 1978 never to be seen again, the project sought to highlight hidden or obscured historical moments that impacted well beyond the Kingston region. The research examined how curatorial practice via the commissioning of a series of iterative, place-specific, temporary projects can serve to nurture resilient communities while at the same time showcase adventurous, challenging contemporary art. It also examined how specific modalities including the device of the bus tour, voice-over narration together with key performative strategies might be braided to reconfigure our understanding of time and place. The commissioned artists were Shane McGrath, Laresa Kosloff, Field Theory, Spiros Panigarikis, Tal Fitzpatrick and Steven Rhall. Close to 1500 members of the public attended while the curators were interviewed on ABC radio and TV, RRR, Bayside Radio, 3CR, and in The Age newspaper. City of Kingston commissioned us to conceptualise and deliver the project drawing from their own funding and a substantial Creative Victoria grant, which meant that the concept and research ambitions were extensively peer reviewed in a two stage process.
Publication classification
J1 Major original creative work
Editor/Contributor(s)
Rhall S, Kosloff L, Theory F, Mcgrath S, Fitzpatrick T, Panigarikis S
Event
Six Moments in Kingston. Exhibit (2019 : Melbourne, Victoria)