It’s funny to think that a quirky little gallery tucked away on level 2 of the University of Melbourne’s Student Union House was the birthplace of feminist art in Melbourne. The walls of the George Paton Gallery [GPG] have seen the pioneering of the first Women’s Art Register, Melbourne’s first feminist art exhibition, and the first and perhaps only festival of women’s performance art in Melbourne. Kiffy Rubbo, Janine Burke, Erica McGilchrist, Micky Allen, Elizabeth Gower, Vivienne Binns, and Laura Mulvey are just some of the incredible creative women who have made these walls their own and contributed something new to the experimental art scene of the 1970’s and 1980’s. 

 

With the original gallery closing and imminently moving to the University of Melbourne’s New Student Precinct, it is poignant to reflect on the significant role the GPG played in the progression of Australian feminist art. Domesticated celebrates the future of contemporary feminist art by looking back at its history. 

 

Domesticated interrogates the complexity of domestic spaces and their connection to a woman’s identity. The home can be both a haven and a prison, offering comfort but also restriction. There is no doubt that the treatment, representation, and acknowledgement of women has improved in recent times, but there remains an inextricable and restraining link between a domestic setting and the woman occupying it. 

 

To marry, to have children, to be satisfied with your career by 30, and to abandon the idea of having yourself as the priority in your life is something that most (if not all) women are not asked of, but are expected of. Since childhood we are fed a narrative so strongly ingrained in society that we pretend it is of our own choosing. A life confined to the domestic realm. There is joy in it, but there is sacrifice. 

 

Domesticated deconstructs these narratives. Using colour, play, interactivity, and humour to examine a twisted, darker reality underneath. As you enter the exhibition you will find home-like fragments around you: a bed, a kitchen table, an armchair, and a chandelier of sorts. Just like any real home, these objects are performative. Their outward presentation is contradictory to the truths they hold. When you explore this exhibition, you’re invited to not just view but to truly live in the space; to sit at the kitchen table, to smell the scents of home, and even to watch tv. You are asked to look beyond the surface and consider what each object is really saying about domesticity, femininity, and identity.  

 

Domesticated also relates to the idea of a gallery as a home, a hub, and a haven for women artists. For decades women have been yearning for a space that offers creative autonomy, yearning for ‘a room of one’s own’. With the birth of the Women’s Art Movement, many creative women found their home within the walls of the GPG. This exhibition joins the feminist art history discourse. Offering our voices, perspectives, and stories through various artistic disciplines allows for multiple discussions on feminism and feminisms to take place simultaneously. Each artist uses different materials, techniques, and tools to examine their own understanding of gender and identity. Bringing these different perspectives together in the same space creates a conversation between each work rather than the delivery of a single argument. 

 

With a few cheeky odes to some of the great feminist powerhouses that have exhibited before us, Domesticated farewell’s the GPG and acknowledges its significant contribution to Australian feminist history. You are invited to become a part of that history. Enjoy the space, sit with the artworks, learn about the brave women before you, and consider how your relationship to your home has informed who you are. 

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Written by Steph Markerink 

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