Julie Shiels

(She)
Extinction Rebellion or XR functions like a brand, albeit a non-commercial one. Glenn Hunt/AAP

Extinction Rebellion: how to craft a protest brand

Visual arts and performance have always been central to protest movements - but the unified branding of Extinction Rebellion shows a new approach to activism.
Mona Confessional 2016 – 19. The art unveiled for this year’s Dark Mofo is a disturbing journey into our future. Julie Shiels

Dark Mofo 2019: a journey through the inferno to robots and extinction

Mona’s new subterranean extension adds a compelling dimension to the art of Dark Mofo 2019. Upstairs, a series of interactive sculptures contemplates our automated future.
Anna Breckon and Nat Randall, Rear view 2018 (still), high definition digital video, multi-channel sound, 85:11 mins Courtesy of the artists Photo: Andrew Curtis

Theatre is Lying is a welcome response to fake news and alternative facts

Through animation, video, light and sound, Theatre is Lying exposes how visual art, performance and theatrical devices can interrogate what is real and what is not.
‘The shape of things to come’, installation view at Buxton Contemporary, the University of Melbourne, March 2018. Photograph by Christian Capurro.

Private collectors are saving Australian art, but they can’t do it on their own

Philanthropists are creating new galleries to share their private collections with the Australian public. But these gifts do not ameliorate the deficit left by declining government arts fundings.
Installation view of Kelly Doley’s Things Learnt About Feminism #1–95 2014: a Day-Glo wall of wisdoms, homilies and histories. Collection: Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, University of Western Australia Photograph: Robert Frith - Acorn Studios

A riotous, often ribald exploration of feminism’s unfinished business

A collaborative Melbourne exhibition traces the concerns of women since the 1970s.
An installation view of Country & Colony, Lady Sheila Cruthers Gallery, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, The University of Western Australia. The Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art is the only dedicated public collection of art by Australian women. Lyle Branson

Still counting: why the visual arts must do better on gender equality

Gender bias is an ongoing problem in the visual arts. Change is needed at every level to tackle it.
Waiting for my lunch 2014. What happens when we start noticing the white noise of ‘non places’? Julie Shiels

Waiting: rediscovering boredom in the age of the smartphone

We constantly use electronic devices to distract ourselves from the tedium associated with waiting. Yet being bored can be a creative activity.
Julie Shiels has been repurposing streetside detritus to artistic ends since 2005. Julie Shiels

Modern life is rubbish – the stories abandoned objects tell

It all began with a muselet – the wire cage that holds a champagne cork in place. Flattened on the footpath, its complex pattern caught my eye. I began noticing others, and realised that every squashed…

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