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MELBOURNE
BRUNSWICK
BUNDOORA
FISHERMANS BEND
POINT COOK
HAMILTON
HO CHI MINH CITY
HANOI
Indigenous new world art comes to Melbourne
Two renowned Indigenous artists – Mexico’s Natalia Toledo and Australia’s Karen
Casey – are collaborating in Melbourne on a new public art project, Alternative
Worlds.
Supported by the RMIT University’s Design Research Institute, RMIT’s School of
Art Artist-in-Residency Program and the City of Yarra, the project explores the
cultural similarities and differences of three “New World” countries, Australia,
Mexico and Canada.
Melbourne is the host city for the first stage of the project which runs from 2010 to
2012. The artists are developing and installing their collaborative work near the
North Carlton Railway Station Neighbourhood House, in the City of Yarra.
Natalia Toledo was born in Juchitan, Oaxaca in South-west Mexico and has
received several distinctions from the Mexican National Council for the Arts. She is
also the first woman to receive the Netzahualcoyotl National Prize in Indigenous
Literature (2004).
Karen Casey is well known and noted for her public practice in Australian art, as
well as her active engagement in collaborative projects with international partners.
RMIT’s Program Director of Art in Public Space, Geoff Hogg, said Alternative
Worlds would take place in Melbourne, Oaxaca (Mexico) and Lethbridge (Canada).
“The projects will be three-way, inter-cultural, trans-disciplinary collaborations
between indigenous artists and designers. They will research future directions in
the decolonised world, in societies that have had differing but parallel colonial,
settlement and migration histories,” he said.
“The projects will investigate how this had informed and transformed the three
societies to become new social constructions and how this has impacted on
contemporary culture, art and design.”
During the one month Melbourne residency, a Canadian artist will not be present,
but First Nations artist, Tanya Harnett, has been to Melbourne and will send a
contribution for the other artists to respond to.
The RMIT project team includes Indigenous Professor John Harding and Public Art
Project researchers Tammy Wong, Cynthia Granados and Brenda Rocha.
International partners include the University of Lethbridge, School of Art, Alberta,
Canada; Mexican organisation Kopalli Public Art; and the Centre for the Arts San
Agustin Etla, Oaxaca, Mexico.
For interviews or comment: Program Director, Art in Public Space, Mr Geoff
Hogg, (03) 9925 4961 or 0413 624 831.
For general media enquiries: RMIT University Communications, Deborah
Sippitts, 03) 9925 3116 or 0429 588 869.
16 June, 2010
NEWS 
