Unfinished Business

The second in ACCA’s series of Big Picture exhibitions focussing on contemporary art’s relation to wider social, cultural and political contexts, Unfinished Business is a major exhibition conceived to animate critical, albeit under-represented, practices and debates within contemporary Australian art and society.

Surveying the diverse scope of feminist art practices—including painting, performance, photography and film to community engagement and cultural activism—the exhibition focuses upon the dynamic formal invention and social engagement of feminist artists. It explores strategies and analyses of gender identity and representation, intersectional politics, and practices which embrace performative codes, text and media technologies, humour and critique.

Adopting a collaborative, polyphonic form which encourages diverse voices, practices and debates, Unfinished Business presents new commissions and recent work alongside selected historical projects, programs of film and performance, and a publication with contributions by art historians, artists and theorists from the 1970s to the present.

The exhibition is being developed by a curatorial team that includes ACCA’s Artistic Director Max Delany and Senior Curator Annika Kristensen, working in collaboration with Paola Balla (Wemba-Wemba and Gunditjmara artist, curator and academic, Victoria University), Julie Ewington (independent curator, writer and broadcaster, and previously Head of Australian Art, Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane), Vikki McInnes (managing editor of Art + Australia at the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne, and co-director of Sarah Scout Presents), and Elvis Richardson (artist and founding editor of CoUNTess).

Asking why feminism is still relevant, necessary and critical, Unfinished Business explores trans-generational legacies, inheritances and shifts, alongside contemporary conditions and concerns—to stimulate new debates and discussions around the “unfinished business” of feminism today.

Participating artists include: Another Planet Posters Inc., Atong Atem, Cigdem Aydemir, Ali Gumillya Baker, Archie Barry, Vivienne Binns, Hannah Brontë, Janet Burchill and Jennifer McCamley, Madison Bycroft, Sadie Chandler, Kate Daw, Linda Dement, Narelle Desmond, Kelly Doley, Mikala Dwyer, Emily Floyd and Mary Featherston, Fiona Foley, Virginia Fraser and Elvis Richardson, FRAN Fest, Future Feminist Archive, Sarah Goffman, Elizabeth Gower, Natalie Harkin, Sandra Hill, Hissy Fit, Jillposters, Kate Just, Maria Kozic, LEVEL, Eugenia Lim, LIP, Linda Marrinon, Alex Martinis Roe, Spence Messih, Ann Newmarch, Claudia Nicholson, Ruth O’Leary, Frances (Budden) Phoenix, Elizabeth Pulie, Clare Rae, Hannah Raisin, Tai Snaith, Giselle Stanborough, Sophie Takách, Salote Tawale, Nat Thomas Lyndal Walker and Shevaun Wright, with further announcements to follow. 

Unfinished Business will also include a film program curated by Helen Grace, Femflix, Kym Maxwell and Laura Castagnini, and is accompanied by an extensive program of talks, performances, symposium and community events running throughout the exhibition.