On International Women’s Day, Triennial artists Clare Milledge and Febie Babyrose (of the Tromorama collective) reflect on the concept and creative processes behind their artworks acquired for the NGV Collection in conversation with Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art Katharina Prugger.
About
Dr Clare Milledge completed a Doctor of Philosophy titled The Artist – Shaman and the Gift of Sight at Sydney College of the Arts in 2013. Part of her candidacy was spent at the Universität der Künste Berlin in 2008. She is actively engaged with Norwegian contemporary art and studied at the Statens Kunst Akademi in Oslo in 2006. The artist has curated several exhibitions including the experimental laboratory Psychomagic Dead Matters at 55 Sydenham Rd in Sydney in 2014. She has been a three-time finalist in the Helen Lempriere Travelling Art Scholarship in 2007, 2008 and 2010. Milledge was also awarded the Fauvette Loureiro Memorial Artists Exchange Scholarship in 2006 and 2008, which enabled her to study in Oslo and Berlin respectively.
Febie Babyrose is a member of Tromarama, an art collective based between Jakarta and Bandung, founded in 2006 alongside Herbert Hans and Ruddy Hatumena. Engaging with the notion of hyperreality in the digital age, their projects explore the interrelationship between the virtual and the physical world. Their works often combine video, installations, computer programming and public participation depicting the influence of digital media on the society ‘s perception towards their surroundings. Tromarama have held solo exhibitions at the Liverpool Biennial Fringe; Gwangju Biennale; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; National Gallery of Victoria; and Mori Art Museum, Japan among other locations. Their group exhibitions include the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD) Manila, Frankfurter Kunstverein; APT 7 QAGOMA, Brisbane; and the Singapore Art Museum.
Katharina Prugger is Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art at the NGV. She holds a Master of Art Curatorship from the University of Melbourne and has over ten years of experience working in the field of contemporary art. Prior to joining the NGV and in the lead up to the inaugural NGV Triennial in 2017, she worked at galleries in Berlin, Munich, London and Melbourne.