Campus Review Volume 28 - Issue 2 | February 2018 | Seite 19

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the voiceover: the kind of voice that I choose, the sort of audio
recording quality, the tempo, and what is said. This is a way for me
to challenge conventional representation.
You used this method in one of your recent projects, To Become Two,
one video installation of which was displayed at the Art Gallery of New
South Wales last year. What does this work represent?
I would argue that this work doesn’t operate in a representational
mode. It is much more performative.
The stories and images I included in it were used to engage
audiences in an active relationship with the historical threads I
brought together in the videos. I organised a four-month workshop,
a series of public talks and a salon event towards this too. Through
interconnected, non-linear narratives, I explored examples of feminist
activism in Sydney that have been in alliance with ecological and
anti-racist movements.
This interests me because I think these issues are inextricable from
each other, namely through the foundational role that dominant
conceptions of nature and culture play in the structural violences that
motivate these different activisms.
My interest in this Australian feminist history is situated in the
broader To Become Two project, which charts the genealogy of the
theory and practice of sexual difference, which was developed in the
’70s in Europe, mainly in France and Italy, and its migration evolution
in the ’80s into new contexts and what is now often termed ‘feminist
new materialism’ or ‘feminist post-humanism’.
You recently moved back to Australia from Berlin. There is a
stereotype of Australia as quite backward when it comes to the arts.
Can you give your thoughts on that and why you came back?
I think there are certainly [challenges] that Australia faces, being so far
away from the art centres that dominate the contemporary art world.
That said, in some ways, Australian art is much more developed in
terms of addressing post-colonial questions than a lot of what you
see in Europe.
I think that there are also knowledges and practices here that are
undervalued. For example, I think that an artist like Melbourne-based
Fiona Macdonald would have a much broader following for her
work if it weren’t for the distance and the fact that the Australian art
market is relatively conservative, which in turn affects what is shown
in museums and other contemporary art spaces. I think, though, that
in recent years, values in the Australian contemporary art world are
perhaps on the whole becoming more politically engaged, outward-
looking and experimental.
One of the reasons I moved back is because, first of all, I think I’ve
reached a point in my career where I can maintain a relationship
with Europe, with my networks in Europe, from Australia. I think as a
young artist I wouldn’t have been able to do that.
Another reason is my research. This film that I made on Australian
feminist history sparked the beginning of something much bigger for
me. I want to interview people here, work with the archives located
in Canberra and contribute artistically to Australian feminist history
and historiography.
What is your vision for your new ANU role?
First, to continue to make my work, to do my research and to exhibit
it internationally