Levels 9 – 10
How does a contemporary artist interpret Australia’s history? What questions can artists raise and challenge us to consider? Meet Taungurung artist Steven Rhall, discover his NGV Triennial artwork, and discuss how he responds to our story as a country through his practice. This virtual program includes a question and answer session with the artist.
Learning Objectives
- Analyse the different perspectives of people in the past and present
- Evaluate how these perspectives are influenced by significant events, ideas, location and time
- Discuss the ways in which contemporary art can confront and challenge past historical narratives
- Analyse and interpret the themes and ideas in Steven Rhall’s artworks
Artist Bio
Taungurong artist Steven Rhall is interested in interrogating modes of representation, classification and hierarchy through formats including installation, performance, sculpture, curatorial practice and public/private interventions. He exhibits internationally, lectures at the Victorian College of the Arts and is a PhD candidate at Monash University on Birrarung-ga land (Melbourne, Australia)
Rhall’s NGV Triennial work, Air dancer as black body 2019, responds to issues around colonisation and, by extension, black bodies in relation to Western art and cultural practice. The figure in Air Dancer as Black Body is ‘inactive,’ its wrist tethered to the host structure and only becomes activated, once triggered by the audience.
This program is part of Creative Catalyst, a program for high ability students attending Victorian Government schools.
