Performance as Protest: Kusama and the Counterculture Movement in the 60s and 70s

The second half of the 1960s marked a major shift in Kusama’s artistic practice. Between 1967 and 1969, she presented roughly seventy-five ‘happenings’ – events linked to the broader countercultural movements of the period, including sexual liberation and anti–Vietnam War protests. Most of Kusama’s happenings took place at prominent public locations throughout New York, including Central Park, Trinity Church and the Brooklyn Bridge.

As part of Midsumma Festival, join us to explore this experimental period in Kusama’s early artistic career, and the broader socio-cultural developments that inspired the artist to move beyond the gallery and into the streets.

Through an informal discussion moderated by NGV curator Meg Slater, guest speakers will consider the socio-cultural links between Melbourne and New York during this period, and the importance of performance and protest in supporting diverse countercultural efforts.

Moderator

• Meg Slater, Curator, International Exhibition Projects, NGV.

Speakers

• Sammaneh Pourshafighi, Midsumma Australia Post Art Award (MAPAA) Coordinator, Midsumma
• Dr Mimi Kelly, Lecturer in Art History and Curatorship, The University of Melbourne
• Angela Bailey, curator, photographer, creative producer and Vice President, Australian Queer Archives (AQuA)

Mimi Kelly is a Lecturer in Art History and Curatorship in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne. Her research sits at the intersection of art, popular culture and feminism. She has a particular interest in body-based art and photomedia, having majored in photography in her Visual Art studies at the South Australian School of Art and Sydney College of the Arts. Prior to her academic employment, she worked for 14 years in the arts sector managing multidimensional touring and sight specific community projects across diverse geographic sites

Angela Bailey is a curator, photographer and creative producer whose practice actively explores and interprets our rich and diverse queer histories and culture by creating exhibitions, installations, discourse and public programs of engagement. Her experiences as a young activist participating in the fight for gay law reform in Queensland continue to inform her work with LGBTIQ+ communities. Angela has a Postgraduate Degree in Fine Art, a Masters of Art Curatorship and is currently Vice President of the Australian Queer Archives.

Sammaneh Pourshafighi is a Queer genderfluid Muslim who arrived in Australia as a refugee after the Iranian Revolution. Their work plays with identity, ritual, the Body, diaspora, Middle Eastern and Western histories, and comedy as a way to address trauma. They have worked with Midsumma, George Paton Gallery, Centre for Contemporary Photography, and the National Portrait Gallery amongst others. Their next project involves transforming their entire apartment into a temporary public exhibition space.