Beyond 50 percent

art against gender based violence

Panmela Castro | Ram Devineni & Dan Goldman | Tal Fitzpatrick | Catherine Gomersall | Aldona Kmieć

Curator: Felicity Martin

Beyond 50% explores the ways in which art can be used to influence cultural change, looking specifically at artists who seek to change the culture surrounding gender-based violence. It presents work by six international and Australian artists who identify as activists, craftivists, agitators and feminists.

While the feminist movement has highlighted the glaring gender inequalities within our society and proposed political and legislative changes, there has also been an increase in the statistics relating to violence against women through entrenched rape cultures, domestic violence, femicide, female infanticide, reproduction violence, both online sexism and violence. The shame and silence around gender-based violence has itself become a barrier to gender equality.

Since the 2016 Presidential election in the United States and the election of Donald Trump, there has been an interest in redefining, rewriting, re-mixing, re-performing and revisiting the work of radical second-wave feminist artists from the past. For Beyond 50%, curator Felicity Martin has brought together current and new work by Panmela Castro, a performance and street activist/artist living in Brazil; Ram Devineni and Dan Goldman, Indian film makers from the United States, who have created the Priya’s Shakti comic series, Melbourne craftivist Tal Fitzpatrick and local artists Catherine Gomersall and Aldona Kmieć.

The exhibition also includes a community quilt project influenced by US collective FORCE Upsetting Rape Culture with participation by Women’s Health Grampians and the community.

Beyond 50 percent

art against gender based violence

Read more on Curator’s website here