Opportunities for Artists
(Ideas of inclusion within problematic frameworks)
Opportunities for Artists was a location based, collaborative project presented by this mob and New Agency between July 17 and August 3rd 2019. Kate Ten Buuren and Steven Rhall (both Taungurung peoples) developed this project in response in simultaneously accessing both Westspace and BLINDSIDE galleries in the Melbourne CBD – via initiatives of each gallery, that whilst 'separate,' were born of initiatives in support of access for First Nation artists.
This project came to be primarily based around the this mob 'takeover' of WestSpace, with the this mob collective being given a largely laissez faire use of the gallery space by Westspace. Within this framework, this mob came to employ the Westspace for the purposes of art production and community based activities, rather than for more traditional presentation based outcomes.
Responding to the 'presentation' of art by First Nation peoples – for or as accompanied by alongside the gaze of a white audience – the BLINDSIDE space was utilised in the manner of the white cube, referencing elements of frameworks both supporting and constituting a presentation.
Images below of the Blindside installation. Credit: Roberta Govoni
