SEVENTH Gallery FY 18/19 Annual Report 1. Mission & Vision 2. Statistical Report 3. Manager’s Report 4. Exhibition Program 5. Emerging Writers Program 6. Events & Public Programs 7. Financial Report 8. People 9. Sponsors/Supporters

SEVENTH acknowledges the traditional custodians of the country where we work, the Wurundjeri and neighbouring Boonwurrung people, and their continuing connection to land, sea and community. SEVENTH pays our respects to

their Elders both past and present.

Mission & Vision SEVENTH Gallery is a space that embraces experimentation, risk and diverse artistic practices. We have a commitment to supporting emerging and underrepresented artists, curators and writers. SEVENTH is run by a democratic board of artists and arts professionals who champion accessibility and affordability for artists and artist-run-initiatives. Our diverse public program of events engages critically with our exhibitions and broader concerns of contemporary art. These programs encourage collaboration with members of the community, as well as providing mentoring and professional development opportunities for artists and curators. SEVENTH continually seeks to engage with the broader arts community to foster collaboration and build creative networks. All positions at SEVENTH are voluntary, except for the Gallery Manager position, which is part time. The gallery is run through the hard work and dedication of the volunteers and the board who passionately believe in supporting emerging artists and their practice.

Statistical Report

40 exhibitions presented 5 public programs presented

8 emerging writers’ texts published 7,413 Facebook followers

5,502 Instagram followers 152 artists supported

6808 onsite attendance

Cover Image: Lorilee Yang

Manager’s Report In 2019, SEVENTH Gallery underwent a period of consolidation across its structure, programming, funding streams and identity. Having chartered a commercial partnership that allowed the organisation to secure further funding with Creative Victoria, we were able to formalize the Gallery Manager role with a wage and superannuation while continuing to offer free spaces and remunerate artists. This enabled us to support emerging artists with more focus and create a safe space for diverse communities by appointing a CALD as the face of the organisation. The result, largely afforded by an increase in administrative resources, is a higher participation from BIPOC communities in our programming and a solid reputation as a space invested in identity, which is arguably (along with climate change) the defining issue of our era. The financial stability of the space, which was largely secured thanks to the efforts of Thea Jones in Financial and Development, heralded a new stage in the life of this ARI. Recently created roles such as Engagement Liaison (Alec Reade) are currently seizing higher participation from diverse communities and pilot roles such as Professional Development (Nikki Lam) were trialed to connect exhibiting artists with established artists, curators and spaces. Our Lawyer, Harry Croft, has re-drafted our legal documents to meet best practices while providing on-going legal advice. Meanwhile, Jade Bitar has increased the participation of volunteers by implementing new engagement strategies in her role as Volunteer Coordinator. SEVENTH is currently moving towards an exciting future in 2020, where an increased budget for Public Programs is enabling Anita Spooner to initiate new partnerships and events. The Emerging Writers Program led by Chantelle Mitchell is also shifting its focus towards a workshop environment and is scheduled to release a small publication outcome. Thea Jones is overhauling our accounts in her role as Treasurer to accommodate new financial obligations. Harry Croft is also working towards reaching charity status, which has been a long-term goal for SEVENTH. We will commemorate this new era for SEVENTH with a new website scheduled to coincide with our new exhibition program in 2020. Diego Ramirez Gallery Manager

Archer Davies An Imperfect Studio, 2018

Exhibition Program 12th July – 27th July 2018

Gallery 1 Gallery 2 7UP Night Screen

Felix Atkinson strange world desire strange world desire is a body of new work by Felix Atkinson which embodies facets of intimacy, physiological states and relationships within the context of Self and the ways in which we relate to others. Taking an ontological approach to figurative painting, this body of work aims to be free from dominant construction of narratives, rather, focusing on the ambiguity and fluidity of time, place and feeling. Nothing is being told⎯the paintings act as mirrors reflecting the narratives brought by the viewer. It is the visual manifestation of these relationships that move beyond concrete depictions of race, gender, expression and intimate interactions between people. The indiscernible drives and desires of and between subjects lends to the interrogation of what is recognisable and residual. strange world desire explores the pathos of human experience and the surreal nature of the unconscious, moving toward a deeper understanding of Self.

Gabi Briggs QWE3NZ Indigenous women have involuntarily occupied archival imagery conducive to the colonial fantasy – imagery that transmits colonial notions and ideas of the noble savage, the exotic and of a white Australia. I have explored archival imagery with the intent of decentering the colonial male gaze and to bring into question the ambiguous absence/presence of Indigenous women within the dominant Australian narrative. Through the use of performance and my own body, video and projection, I have authored a counter-fiction to the colonial fantasy. It is navigated by my own narrative as an Indigenous woman with the intent of decentering the male colonial gaze, regaining ownership and autonomy of my positioning within the national imaginary produced by archival imagery.

Archer Davies An Imperfect Studio An Imperfect Studio expands upon my interest in how we make meaning through creation and aesthetic experience. In this show I have looked at my new studio in Northcote, with its cheap IKEA furniture, built-in cupboard, blue plastic tarpaulin carpet protector and its single window with a view to a neglected hedge. I have used subjects from my studio, combined with images from a few art history books that I have kept after my recent move. From these banal resources I was able to extract a kind of personal story. Painting, then, can be a way of synthesising experience – to be a kind of extension of the body. (This is in notable contrast with the smartphone which can be a way of outsourcing experience – a kind of prosthetic extension of the eye).

Alison Kennedy SelfieHead Selfies taken in studios transform through the technology designed for quite a different purpose – for measuring distances. I started this work by wanting to represent myself as artist in situ – my studio. I used a mode of photographic representation that I have become obsessed with that defies formal categories – conflating sculpture, photography and 2D representational forms. Dancing between intent and the uncontrolled, the work glitches and codes errors, excavating unexpected truths. My selfie studio unexpectedly became an apocalyptic space due to the alchemy of algorithm. Blackholes, parts of reality tear and peel, my body destroyed. A world pieced together of surfaces, ultimately hollow.

Katayoun Javan The Man with 1000 Faces, 2018

Exhibition Program 2nd August - 24th August 2018

Gallery 1 Gallery 2 7UP Night Screen

John Gosper Sartorial Bodies Sartorial Bodies deploys textile and sculpture to destabilise the centrality and neutrality of particular identities within image-making in art and fashion. As an artist that claims oppositional identities, John Gosper adopts image-making and sculpture-making that challenge constructions of neutrality - particularly whiteness and thinness. Pouring liquid latex over wadding and foam, Gosper's garments affirm representations of a ‘brown’ body. The garments are oversized dresses, smocks, wraps and have anthropomorphic elements worked into the design eg. brown skin, hair.

Sabina Maselli mask of hysteria The video installation mask of hysteria plays with contrasting readings of its title: 'mask', a covering, a disguise, or its Latin origin 'masca', 'witch' or 'spectre'; 'hysteria', a disorder, a disturbance, or its Greek origin 'hustera', 'womb'. The accused, the accursed, or the feminine moon eclipsing the masculine sun.

Katayoun Javan The Man with 1000 Faces - Part One The Man with 1000 Faces - Part One is the beginning of an ongoing story about my father, told through images. The series’ name refers to the propagandistic title that was given by newspapers to several people related to the Shah’s regime, including my father. My father was executed during the Iranian Revolution of 1979. This exhibition invites you to an intimate but objective view of him through one thousand photos observing him in different contexts. The series refers to my family photo archive, reproducing my father’s photos and remaining belongings and appropriating iconic photos and texts from the Iranian Revolution and newspapers of the time. For the last 40 years it has been taboo to speak of him, his existence was censored. it has been uncomfortable and a challenge to share his stories, in part because of his involvement in the Shah’s regime. Through this work I am reclaiming my father’s existence. Sponsored by Prism Imaging.

Callum Harper the days dissolve upon the tongue I’m trying to remember, I’m trying to forget. I will always remember. I can’t ever forget. Forgot. A visitor in Hrísey, North of Iceland, artist Callum Harper attempts to work through notions of fluidity, gender and love through movement and text.

Utopian Tongues, 2018 Curated by Jake Treacy

Exhibition Program 29 August- 22 September 2018 All Galleries: Alicia King, Ara Dolatian, Callan, Farnaz Dadfar, Kate Robertson, Jake Treacy, Manisha Anjali, Marko Radosavljevic, Siying Zhou, Talia Smith, Tane Andrews and Yuria Okamura. Curated by Jake Treacy Utopian Tongues Utopian Tongues is a project that brings together an inclusive group of contemporary creatives through altruistic visions of tomorrow. Through practices of art, poetry, music, dance and architecture a set of utopian acts are performed within and beyond the gallery space. Utopian Tongues transforms SEVENTH into a space for critical thinking and progressive discourse during the exhibition, questioning how we might ensure a better and more engaged future. Identity, culture, sexuality and spirituality inform these conversation of tomorrow through the agency of today, realising art as a conduit for potent change, transformation and healing. By amplifying and providing platform for these disparate yet powerful voices, the exhibition speaks of unity in diversity, interconnectivity and community; it invokes a space for reflection, yet also of action. Jake Treacy is a curator, writer and poet whose practice employs esoteric acts through exhibition-making, performativity, and the spoken and written word. His recent thesis examines ways of constructing liminal experiences in order to incur healing, promoting inclusivity and community, and exercising the therapy of art.

Itchy, 2018 Curated by Lorilee Yang

Exhibition Program 27th September – 19th October 2018

Gallery 1 & 7UP Gallery 2 & Night Screen

Sophie Cassar, Brighid Fitzgerald, Annabelle Kingston, Alice McIntosh, Rowan Oliver, Bobuq Sayed, Panda Wong, and Lorilee Yang. Curated by Lorilee Yang Itchy Itchy is an exhibition that posits allergies, intolerances and rashes as social aggravation and anarchic bodily resistance. The physical manifestations of sensitivities and emotional retaliation that arise within the artist’s ‘deviant’ bodies mirror the internal irritations and discomfort that arise as a response to the patriarchal, white supremacist, capitalist, heteronormative systems that they exist within. Our roles as either allergic or allergen shift depending on our environments. What are the preventative measures and barriers that can be put into place so that you do not experience such elements and extremes of aggravation? How can discomfort lend itself to broader understanding, awareness and empathy? This exhibition is proudly supported by the City of Yarra, through the Small Project Grants Program.

Olivia Tian Chai Koh Episodes Delirious and sun stroked the germologist dreams, the glands of his skin sweating weakened his dreams are infected by the deteriorating and refracting language of the regiment. As the germologist’s fever intensifies, he is plagued by the images, colours and sounds

of his former and future material body. This work was developed during a residency at Green Papaya Art Projects and Los Otros Film Lab in Manila, The Philippines (2017) supported by NAVA.

Sean Miles Sulfur Kiss, 2018

Exhibition Program 25th October – 9th November 2018

Gallery 1 Gallery 2 7UP Night Screen

Sean Miles Sulfur Kiss This exhibition is informed by recent personal journeys throughout Aotearoa. Over a two month period, I ventured across volcanic terrains, connected with whānau, and reflected on Maori histories and stories. This body of work has a celebratory focus on whakapapa and how it has enlightened me to experience a broader and deeper sense of connectedness. In this work, I use Maui-tikitiki-a-taranga as a catalyst to link familiar queer attitudes and methods like drag, with those of ancient trickster archetypes that are present in Maori myth and legend. For me, this activates a healing process that allows my body and spirit to experience a sense of liberation from colonial and heteronormative binary prisons.

Jesse Dyer Double Convex The term for a photographic lens comes from the latin lens culinaris meaning lentil. Its usage equates the form of a double convex lens to that of a lentil. A lens which focuses light, projects, and magnifies is considered truthful, despite the inevitable distortions it causes. Lenses, in the form of microscopes, telescopes and high speed cameras, enable the observations on which scientific theory is built. That which is objective is actually edible, biological, vegetable. Dried lentils are hung on strings in formations which resemble the optical structure of lenses. Others are sprouting under large magnifying lenses. The tiny lenses of a phone selfie camera are suspended alongside the dried lentils. Double Convex investigates what the lentil plant knows of photographic representation, of lens based culture and of CCTV surveillance systems. It explores how this knowledge can be used to understand our image saturated social media cultures and re-evaluate lens based representation.

Melissa Deerson with Celeste Potter Give Me The Little Book Performance/exhibition in response to The Revelation of St John: 10 by Albrecht Durer (1498), in which St John eats the book of the apocalypse from the hands of an angel.

Sophie Penkethman-Young Burn Out Burn Out (2018) examines digital (and in turn mental) clutter, hoarding and consumption, and its relationship to memory. Chapter one begins as an intention to document every flower in her grandmother’s garden, before morphing into a barrage of pixels. In chapter two, a personal inventory of everyday objects spills out from the belly of a fish, before being buried beneath what appears to be a tropical paradise (really it’s an island built on mundane personal trash). Chapter three articulates the violent frustration of digital hoarding. The work speaks to the emotional toll of digital overconsumption, creating a feedback loop between online space and everyday life.

Majed Fayad Flex Zone, 2018

Exhibition Program 22nd November – 14th December 2018

Gallery 1 Gallery 2 7UP Night Screen

Majed Fayad Flex Zone Flex Zone explores the ideals of Ancient Greek classicism within present day ‘gym junkie’ culture by contrasting the body forms of classic sculptures with the obsessive shapes of bodybuilding. This is a critique on the Golden Ratio Man and the bodily ideals that permeate pop culture, sport, media advertisements, films, and lifestyles in the 21st century. Indeed, Flex Zone seeks to question the ways in which we perceive ‘divine beauty’ through the lens of contemporary culture and via capitalist means. The project displays a body of work that highlights classical forms of ancient Greek sculptures with ‘true and natural’ heroes, such as Hercules & Athena. It addresses the concept of ‘true’ physical beauty while observing irregular structures of obsessive present day gym culture and its champions like Mr. Olympian, Arnold Schwarzenegger. The work unpacks this connection with a series of gym objects and museum artefacts installed in the gallery space.

Patrick Zaia Don’t Hug Me Hug This Like the monstrous assemblage of rotting limbs and dead flesh famously animated by Mary Shelley’s mad doctor Victor Frankenstein, Don’t Hug Me Hug This manifests a similarly post-human hybrid. But unlike Frankenstein’s fetid composition of decaying cadavers and hewn off appendages, the body of Don’t Hug Me Hug This is comprised of pop cultural objects that are blatantly and excessively artificial. Elements of schlock horror, practical special effects, kawaii and pop music have been unflinchingly hacked off and stitched together into one corpulent display of grotesquely unfettered synthetics. Stare long enough into its giddy post-human (w)hole and you might just catch it obscenely cry out to you with the urgency of a new born: “don’t hug me, hug this!”

Dana Davenport, curated by Nanette Orly 긴장 (that’s why I get so tired now) The title of this exhibition is derivative of a real-life conversation Davenport has had with her mother. It references a tension, the inability to relax and the pressure placed upon her family to defy social constructs that surround Blackness in a country that adheres to and reveres white

ideals. This tension – this 긴장 (ginjang) – is explored through various mediums in Davenport’s artistic practice. She has created her own unique framework of self, one that resists categorisation and is explored using her own body, hair as a proxy for her body, text and language. In sharing her experiences, Davenport attempts to debunk national and racial constructs that seek to exotify and disjoin Black and Asian comradery and states that we are more akin than we have been led to

live and believe. 긴장 (that’s why I get so tired now) is Davenport’s first solo exhibition in Australia, curated by Nanette Orly.

Edwina Green Is this our great nation? Is this our great nation? appropriates televised scenes of blatant racism that have shaped Australia’s identity and remain prevalent in today’s society. This work questions the anglo-saxon idea of a post-racial society and the notion that racism is no longer an issue in contemporary Australia. The content of this video shows otherwise, as it evidences the colonial mentality of our country and how it operates in mass media to affect its population. This video accounts for the anger and frustration that many subjects feel when they sit outside the anglo-saxon identity that dominates Australia. ‘Is this our great nation?’ aims to provide a context to the misunderstandings that affect the artist in her everyday life as she deals with the contemporary effects of colonialism.

Slippage The coconut doesn’t fall far from the tree, but is sometimes carried away by a current, 2019

Exhibition Program 10th January – 1st February 2019

Gallery 1 Gallery 2 7UP Night Screen

Slippage The coconut doesn’t fall far from the tree, but is sometimes carried away by a current A man, tired of his frail father breaking rice bows, hollows out a coconut shell for him to eat out of. When he sees his own son playing with a coconut, he ask the child what he is doing, ‘I’m making you a bowl for you’ the child replies. The man gives his father a rice bowl. The above Vietnamese parable goes to the core of the cultural values with which we (Phuong Ngo & Hwafern Quach) have been raised. It illustrates the importance placed on family and Confucian concepts of filial piety, introduced to Vietnam during 1000 years of Chinese occupation. This work examines the concept of ‘Asian Values’ in a Western context, exploring what this parable means to those who live within the hyphen, and what these male centric stories mean to a second-generation Asian-Australian woman.

Alice Does Reis Mood Keep Mood Keep (2018) is a fictional documentary tracing the collective decision of axolotls in captivity to develop eyelids as a part of their biology. Axolotls are water salamanders with regenerative abilities who refuse to metamorphose into maturity. This film is set in a near future—or recent past—and charts the intersection between the axolotl’s engender status, postcolonial histories, unearthly biology, and its online popularity as one of the world’s cutest creatures. In Mood Keep, axolotls communicate via wi-fi waves and watch anime telepathically. Born almost blind and only capable of discerning shadows of light, the permanent tungsten brightness in their tanks is unpleasant and disturbing to their thoughts as well as communication abilities. Collectively, from the confinement of their enclosures, these axolotls decide to develop eyelids, choosing to shut their eyes indefinitely as a way to reclaim agency of their bodies and encourage empathic communication.

Avni Dauti & Rebecca Vaughan Ô•diz•m Ô•diz•m narrates a history of audism, a term that describes hearing discrimination against Deaf people and their culture. The film imagines a futuristic museum display of various Deaf-related artefacts and devices that have sought to erase modes of Deafness and speechlessness throughout history to present day. This assemblage of objects, bureaucratic and biographical details, are used to sketch a brief narrative of “audism,” reflecting the way in which they have become charged with cultural meaning, and offering indications of a larger cultural situation.

Andrew Roberts Towards Electromateriality Towards Electromateriality (2018) is the first chapter of a manifesto introducing us the wold of the new flesh; a reconfiguration of reality mediated by the existence of high speed electronics, assassin algorithms and the atomic materiality of all digital media. Recurring to the visual languages of cosmic horror, warfare video games and dystopian science fiction it draws both conceptual and aesthetic parallels between occultism and black box devices; alchemy and electromechanical engineering; the supernatural and the physical invisibility of virtual realms.

Aida Azin Lonely God, 2019

Exhibition Program 7th February – 1st March 2019

Gallery 1 Gallery 2 7UP Night Screen

Aida Azin Lonely God Do you remember the time When we fell in love Do you remember the time When we first met girl Do you remember the time When we fell in love Do you remember the time Lonely God is an exhibition that affectionately revels in memories of the artists recent trip to her mother’s birth country, the Philippines. Lonely God shuffles mischievously through cherished mementos to make peace with fragmented identity. This body of work represents a divergence from the weighted feelings that have characterised Azin’s ongoing practice. By subverting the heaviness that characterises the politics of race, she investigates the potential for recovery from guilt, shame and isolation, and expands into the lightness of multiplicity.

Zoe Wong & Kevin Diallo Unleash the Dragon Unleash the Dragon is a collaborative project by artists Kevin Diallo and Zoe Wong. It aims to explore the influence of Kung Fu in the Hip-Hop community and the ways in which this cross-cultural phenomenon becomes an avenue for identity making as well as cultural appropriation. The artists seek to question cultural stereotypes and signifiers along with colonial modes of thinking through this collaboration.

Jimmy Nuttall Fabulina Fabulina is an exhibition bringing together new work by Jimmy Nuttall. A segment of a new film work, Fabulina incorporates a cast of artists, actors, dancers and choreographers in a moving image assemblage on addiction, communication (and a lack thereof), pastoralism and doubt. Performances from Brian Fuata, Mick Klepner Roe, Kate Meakin and Luigi Vescio with a score by Jono Nash and Bonnie Cummings

Alex Dabi Zhevi A bridge could be a cucumber Our maternal grandparents were political refugees, emigrating from Bulgaria to Australia in the 1950s. Teenagers when they arrived, they had rarely ventured out of the valley or their village (selo) prior to their escape. In Australia, they experienced some cultural continuity through a large community of Balkan migrants living in diaspora. Preparing Bulgarian food became a bridge where tradition negotiates geographical distance and migration. These signage-based texts are of the ‘peasant’ foods served on our tables countless times since our grandparents’ arrival. They are the staple dishes of family celebrations or after school snacks—unglamorous and non-exotic to a white audience. While these recipes are practical, they offer a deeply emotive experience. Food plays a symbolic role in our lives as lists, recipes and ingredients represent the practicalities of nourishment and survival. They express tradition and culture as what we eat becomes intangible and emotional, forming part of an economy of identity.

Tyson Campbell & Selina Ershadi anti-time, 2019

Exhibition Program 14th March – 29th March 2019

Gallery 1 Gallery 2 7UP Zarnie Morcombe Bite Me Zarnie Morcombe aka Plastic Loaves exhibits herself in her first solo show, entitled ‘Bite me’. Presenting paintings, clothes, photographs, sculpture and text. Created from a serious place of boundless emotional play, Bite Me zooms in on our personal and social journey with teeth and how teeth alone can be a symbol to the many stages of life. Displaying a to-and-fro method for expression, Zarnie’s practise is led by an intuitive might to bite.

Her Africa is Real (H.A.I.R) Part A: It’s Speachy Part A: it’s speachy. is about dialogue and conversation that interrogate voice, critique and response. In this exhibition, Her Africa Is Real (H.A.I.R) appropriate Reverend Alpheus Zulu’s 1972 Cape Town University Lecture, titled ‘The Dilemma of the Black South African’, as a foundation to assert their herstories. A mash up of fragmented text, loops, commentary and performance, the exhibition invites the viewer into a cacophony of conversation. Her Africa Is Real (H.A.I.R) employs contemporary methodologies of performance, literature, soundscape and installation to reimagine the “traditional” archive, and present our narratives and histories within the context of so called ‘Australia’. Her Africa Is Real (H.A.I.R) is an interdisciplinary collective. As southern African diaspora identities in an antipodean context, we come together to discuss and create works that challenge erasure and assert black representation, histories and narratives. The collective includes Roberta Rich, Naomi Velaphi and Sista Zai Zanda.

Tyson Campbell & Selina Ershadi anti-time Kia whakatōmuri te haere whakamua I walk backwards into the future with my eyes fixed on my past است آینده راه چراغ گذشته Our past is the light that shows us our future path anti-time is a two-person show bringing together the work of Tyson Campbell and Selina Ershadi. Exploring the complicated and at times contradictory feelings that are stirred up when utilising one’s own personal and collective histories and fissures for art production, anti-time resists clearly deduced narratives and resolutions and instead resides in a place of ambivalence and unease.

Roslyn Helper Thank U, Text, 2019

Exhibition Program 4th April – 26th April 2019

Gallery 1 Gallery 2 7UP Roslyn Helper Thank U, Text Thank U, Text is a video performance in which the artist recites break up text messages she wrote and sent to herself with the assistance of a predictive text app on her phone. Combining scripted performance and video portraiture, Roslyn investigates what’s happening when embodied emotional states are mediated and expressed through technology-driven communication platforms. What poetry emerges? What slippages occur? In this hyper emotional situation, the artist tries to deal with her own shortcomings and failures as a human, whilst also being failed by the technology with which she is trying to express herself. The result has the uncanny familiarity of a break up, but meaning is constantly deferred and values are misplaced by a technocratic lexicon that doesn’t understand deep sadness.

Isabella Whāwhai Waru Passage Driftwood and seaweed are our taonga when home is away from home. I dragged a stone down my spine and gave it to you. Everything is precious when learning (yearning) from bone… Passage navigates the re-imagining, re-negotiating, re-building and re-enacting of ritual and rite of passage (or the absence of) for Oceanic children, of the diaspora. Reflecting upon how (dis)connection to culture, whenua//land, tupuna//ancestors and self, manifests across Oceans. What communication becomes when a language has been buried. Functioning as a sacred space, each visitor contributes to its mana, and cyclically, Isabella Waru will return to the space to enact//perform their own rituals. Over the duration of the exhibition the space will undergo its own transition. Passage excavates vessels for transition, growth, birth, death and rebirth. It refers to the holding patterns of in-between spaces. It refers to ignited movement. It refers to Passageways.

Sam Harrison curated by Moorina Bonini Power is in the Details Sam Harrison is an artist of both First (Wiradjuri) and Second (English) Nations decent. He likes to think of himself as pretty bloody Australian. His most recent work “Power is in the Details” is a reply to, and reimagining of, Richard Lewer’s “The History of Australia”. We as a nation so often get bogged down by the broad brush depiction of our history. This depiction sweeps away and insulates us from the pain, suffering (and political difficulties) that lie in the details of our past. However, this act also sweeps away the love, laughter and humanity that is core to the lived experience on this continent.

Kalinda Vary & Nunzio Madden We were both two when it happened (Part 1), 2019

Exhibition Program 2nd May – 24th May 2019

Gallery 1 Gallery 2 7UP Deslave Dollhouse Dollhouse brings together the works of Básica TV, Hysterical Accuracy and MUXXXE, a group of artists working with the intersections between contemporary art and reality television, web series, pop music, theatre, fashion and drag culture. Through collaborative efforts with designers, audio producers, videographers and all kind of content creators, they blur the lines between their own authorship and what is considered a work of art; thus creating exciting science fiction movies, talk shows, circus performances, music videos and all the possible languages drawn from mass media.

Daisy Atkin-Harrison Guises Atkin-Harrison’s work aims to explore the dichotomous relationship between the internal and external worlds that exist both within and around us and how, through their interchanging dialogues, we are shaped on both a personal and global level. As an extension of this focus her work is concerned with the relationship between society, the individual and Cinema, TV and popular culture. Guises explores the artist’s concern for how our interactions with these virtual universes effect how we develop and, in turn, inform how we see others and ourselves. Throughout the exhibition the artist aims to engage with the viewer’s internal self and initiate a conversation regarding the external and the influence it holds over our subliminal thoughts and actions.

Kalinda Vary & Nunzio Madden We were both two when it happened (Part 1) Two people, Nunzio and Kalinda were each admitted to hospital at the age of two with kidney problems. One of Nunzio’s two kidneys wasn’t functioning, while Kalinda’s two kidneys were in reflux sending things back inside the body, rather than excreting outwards. This show has been developed side-by-side, two kidneys in a body of work to support our individual explorations. The work is concentrated on loss of autonomy, the interface between body-and-machine, involuntary excretions and dispossession-of-body. The hospital experience residing in our bones; the invasion traceable through the urinary tract and muscle-memory.

Liam O’Brien Empty Avenues (Best of Season 1), 2019

Exhibition Program 30th May – 14th June 2019

Gallery 1 Gallery 2 7UP Jake Charles Almeida curated by Marley Holloway-Clarke So what exactly is Australia’s identity? Ready-made Victorian style chair, white paint. The work centres around underlying issues in contemporary Australia by seeking to address the lack of cultural certainty within the dialogue and historicity of Australia’s eclectic identity. As the work subtly responds to design in a critical manner, it explores the tensions between native timber and its mimicry, the questions surrounding the role and connotations of white paint, the European influence of kitsch, and its position as instigator of the Indigenous rebranding. We would like to acknowledge the Country of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation this country which we meet, work, learn, live and grow together. I pay respect to our Ancestors and present Elders and emerging leaders. I acknowledge this Country that holds us together. The earth holding stories, lore and song lines. The skies that carry Waa, the protector, and Bunjil, the creator. The waters both salt and fresh and how they connect and flow. We are all connected to Country and everything it represents. I acknowledge that sovereignty has never been ceded and that this land holds sacred stories, lore and customs that have been maintained for thousands of generations.

Anj Odessa ALONE – An engagement with barriers support and healthcare ALONE responds to a positioning of gender diverse bodies toward non-monogamy, support networks, and medical inadequacy. We’re facing barriers and have been endlessly. Those which keep getting in the way, those we manage to move through / around / break; yet the other side reveals another membrane we were unconscious to. Back and forth with pharmaceutical promises; the information is unclear and uncertain. We find our own, we support our own, we contribute to our own.

Liam O’Brien Empty Avenues (Best of Season 1) Empty Avenues is an imaginary television sitcom that depicts the trials and tribulations of living in a share house with ‘the void’ – a materialisation of universal nothingness. Empty Avenues is also a reimagining of the artists’ daily life through the narrative and visual conventions of television sitcoms. By doing so, O’Brien is exploring the agency of narrative identity – an area of psychology that describes how an individuals’ understanding of self, the values and goals that they possess, and their place within society is grasped within the context of a self-generated and ever-changing historical narrative. However, Empty Avenues is also (re-)presented in the style of a YouTube ‘Best of’ compilation. Such compilations remove scenes from the chronological and narrative contexts that are required to understand their meanings. Therefore, while Empty Avenues seeks to generate meaning, the compilation of its scenes affectively denies any - resulting in a manifestation of the Absurd.

Sarah Brasier (curator) and on the eyes, black sleep of night. 2019 (installation view)

Exhibition Program 20 June - 12 July 2019 All Galleries: Beth Caird, Brahmony McCrossin, Jemi Gale, Katie Foster, Michael Kennedy, Robyn Doherty, Rosie O’Brien, Sarah Brasier Curated by Sarah Brasier and on the eyes, black sleep of night “and on the eyes, black sleep of night” brings together artists who have experienced the death of a parent. Each of the artists explore their shared incidents of loss in a variety of ways. Themes of childhood are common amongst Brahmony McCrossin, Michael Kennedy, Jemi Gale and Sarah Brasier. They utilise imagery that appeals to a childlike sensibility; toing and froing between melancholy and playfulness, their works explore the complexity of life and death. For Beth Caird, her work has a focus on grief processes and life-after-death experiences, self-made myths and the truth buried under fabrications. Katie Foster’s text work and drawings capture the feeling of fear that you might never recover from such grief. In Robyn Doherty’s zine “The wonderful colours reminds me of the memories I had of Dad” she memorialises her father in a sincere and sanguine nature. Rosie O’Brien’s records the still and simple beauty of flowers before they wither and die, reminding us that life is ephemeral. Artworks presented in the exhibition intermingle new work with historic and personal artefacts, across the disciplines of painting, video and installation. Together the artists present a series of thoughtful offerings that pay homage to their departed loved ones.

Emerging Writers Program

Jo Pugh Untitled For John Gosper’s exhibition, Sartorial Bodies I took it off flattened it out covered it up concealed it censored pulled tight turned down the volume washed up, washed o thought safe, faked safety inflated your ego hey, how are you? I am prescribed I read your narrative, I know your narrative for you, for me Jo Pugh is a Fijian-Indian writer, speaker and visual artist working in text-based mediums based in Naarm (Melbourne). Their writing explores and centres queerness, brownness and marginalisation.

Tamara Searle Reconfiguring Now For Utopian Tongues curated by Jake Treacy Think of these words as a flag, claiming this space to present a view. This writing is the iconography of a flag returning territory; in this case, creative, intellectual, and political territory. Let this writing signify this place, as a place for discourse, and progressive views. Here it is. [Excerpt] Tamara Searle is a performance maker and writer

Panda Wong all the rashes i have ever had always come back to me For Itchy curated by Lorilee Yang an itch suggests dissonance with one’s environment, internalised feelings of discomfort bloom on the skin like a rose. once a woman had an itch so bad, she scratched right through the bone of her skull into her brain. panda (b.1992 sibu, malaysia) is a poet currently based in naarm (melbourne). her writing practice is currently exploring the physical embodiment of grief, feeling as knowledge and the innate performativity of emotion. her poetry aspires to be a tiny handbag but is more like an itchy jumper.

Chloé Hazlewood Forging cross-cultural coalitions: a refusal of white supremacy

For 긴장 (that’s why I get so tired now), Dana Davenport curated by Nanette Orly Discrimination is a parasite. It targets vulnerable subjects, without which it cannot sustain itself and whose detriment it relies upon. It is opportunistic, invasive and self-serving, fuelled by eating away at the subject’s resources. Discrimination is an attack on difference, in the form of racist slurs. It attempts to undermine solidarity between groups, in particular people of colour... Historically, ‘whiteness’ has functioned as both a neutral category and the ‘norm’. The white (male) gaze has been cast upon ‘othered’ bodies, classifying them within an insidious racial hierarchy. [Excerpt] Chloé Hazelwood is an emerging arts writer and curator living in Naarm (Melbourne).

Emerging Writers Program

Jessica Lehmann On the feeling of marvelousness. For Give Me The Little Book by Melissa Deerson with Celeste Potter … Eat up my words, taste their silky ssss and chunky rrrr or softer mmmm. ‘my stomach swimmed in words. ’Dirty nails click clack downwards next to a heavy show/case, a feminist action to expel information from the Bible, knowledge as fuel/food, (religion and art )as sustenance for the downtrodden( in life and art) consumed in a neoliberal society and functioning in the gallery, opening (cheap drinks! Cheap show/ case!) it is a contingency plan as an artefact body from a time before it was okay to seem me, case in point… [Excerpt] Jessica is originally from Country Victoria. She recently completed a Bachelor of Art History and Curating at Monash University with a minor in Literary Studies. The writing practice she persists at is embodied and spatially sensitive with excessive attention to details and interests in the ephemeral, conceptual, non-patriarchal, non-linear and the performative/soundscape in art practice. Now Jessica is focusing on poetry, next week it may be yesterday’s interest.

Allison Chan 仁1 For The coconut doesn’t fall far from the tree, but is sometimes carried away by a current by Slippage. you teach your son to be icarus reckless with his freedom what’s careless about giving him wings virtue is the heart & a daughter obeys like the moon she conceals and is hidden she makes room for the son who is a stream running to the sea holding heaven Allison Chan is a settler/ writer interested in the failure of language and the endless possibilities in its ruin.

Henry Law Untitled For Ô•diz•m by Avni Dauti & Rebecca Vaughan. … Largely contextualised by its title, Ô•diz•m is the phonetic spelling of the term audism. Conceived by Deaf scholar Tom L. Humphries, audism has been defined as “the notion that one is superior based on one’s ability to hear or behave in the manner of one who hears” 1. More recently, psychologist Harlan Lane has popularized audism to include wider societal marginalization of Deaf communities and their culture. It is in this later sense that the word serves as the conceptual departure point for Dauti, the artist himself being a member of the Deaf community… [Excerpt] Henry Law is a Melbourne based artist and writer. Law has written for *dumb brun(ette), un Projects and numerous Melbourne ARI’s. Law graduated from RMIT with a Masters of Fine Art in 2018.

Clare McLeod For Unleash the Dragon by Zoe Wong & Kevin Diallo … A key feature of Unleash the Dragon is that is does not purport to contain a definitive answer surrounding cultural exchange and homage, but rather seeks to foster discussion about the space that kung fu and hip hop have carved out in popular culture. This is only the first step for Zoe and Kevin’s collaboration; they hope for it to kickstart an ongoing conversation about how we view race and identity through the context of cross-cultural narratives and media. In Unleash the Dragon, the gallery acts as a site through which to explore how these concepts have continually changed and re-emerged through time, from the viewpoint of two artists generating works that engage with one another in the space… [Excerpt]

Events & Public Programs Decolonize This Place x SEVENTH Sunday 29 July 2018 Schoolhouse Studios Anita Spooner, Hanann Al Daqqa, Amin Husain, Nitasha Dhillon, Jive Poetic, Bo Svoronos, Moorina Bonini, Gabi Briggs. In collaboration with New York based collective Decolonize This Place, SEVENTH Gallery hosted a public forum to extend its commitment to decolonising their structure and program. Standing in solidarity with local First Nations groups and community organisations, they will discuss how to create a culturally safe space and oppose gentrification in Gertrude Street. SEVENTH Board members Anita Spooner and Hanann Al Daqqa were joined by Amin Husain and Nitasha Dillon of Decolonize This Place (via Skype), along with New York City based DJ and poet Jive Poetic; creative producer for Footscray Community Arts Centre, Bo Svoronos; artist, Yorta Yorta woman and descendant from the Dhulunyagen Clan, Moorina Bonini; and Gabi Briggs, artist and sovereign Anaiwan and Gumangier kajira (woman). The speakers took an intersectional approach to decolonizing their place. Decolonize This Place is a space that is action-oriented around indigenous struggle, black liberation, Free Palestine, global wage workers and de-gentrification. This program was funded by Mel&NYC and All Conference. Thanks to Footscray Community Arts Centre for touring Jive Poetic to Australia, as well as Schoolhouse Studios for hosting the event.

Events & Public Programs SEVENTH Public Programs

Speaking in Utopian Tongues Wednesday 9 September 2018 Join curator and poet Jake Treacy along with artists from the exhibition in a walking discussion through Utopian Tongues. This talk engages with inclusivity through identity, culture, sexuality and spirituality to foster healthy spaces and suggests how we might ensure a better and more engaged tomorrow, through knowing the past, within the present. In understanding that utopia translates to 'no place,' this talk offers ideas towards how we may construct more inclusive spaces within and beyond the gallery, and how art may be at the service of this utopian act.

Itchy Bitchy Saturday 13 October 2018 'itchy bitchy' is a spring-time afternoon of readings in the SEVENTH courtyard presented alongside the exhibition Itchy, curated by Lorilee Yang. 'itchy bitchy' propagates multiple interpretations of ‘itchy’ poetics, with readings and performance by Julie Ha, Lei Lei Kung, Kamna Muddagouni, Autumn Royal, and Panda Wong.

Chained to the Rhythm Saturday 2 February 2019 SEVENTH Gallery and Liquid Architecture present performances by Catherine Ryan, Melody Paloma and Thomas Ragnar. This public program was proudly supported by the City of Yarra, through the Small Project Grants Program.

SEVENTH Fundraiser Party Wednesday 6 March 2019 An evening of financial, social and cultural exchange! Artworks will be available for purchase by recent alumni and community supporters. SEVENTH acknowledges the multiplicity of value systems at play in our programs, beyond financial value. Our annual fundraiser will feature a performance program offering of alternative symbolic and cultural capital. All donations will support SEVENTH to provide an accessible platform to emerging, experimental artists.

Financial Report Statement of Financial Position as at 30 June 2019

2019 2018 $ $ ASSETS CURRENT ASSETS Cash on hand 21,896 39,399 Accounts receivable (3,780) - TOTAL CURRENT ASSETS 21,896 39,399 NON-CURRENT ASSETS Property, plant and equipment 2,541 2,541 Less accumulated depreciation (429) - TOTAL NON-CURRENT ASSETS 2,112 2,541 TOTAL ASSETS 20,227 41,940 LIABILITIES CURRENT LIABILITIES Accounts payable and other payables 8,730 4,843 Bond payable 4,100 - Rounding (2) (2) Unused grants - 29,220 TOTAL CURRENT LIABILITIES 11,499 34,061 EQUITY Current year earnings 7,619 1,077 Retained surplus 3,881 6,801 TOTAL EQUITY 11,499 7,879

Financial Report Income and Expenditure Statement for the year ended 30 June 2019

2019 2018 $ $ INCOME Event income 1,910 814 Government grants – Creative Victoria 29,220 - Government grants – Creative Yarra 10,000 10,000 Donations 7,590 3,898 Fundraising 3,240 2,900 Exhibition and performance fees - 35,272 Studio hire 4,200 9,340 Venue hire 47,250 14,750 Interest income 33 - TOTAL INCOME 103,443 76,974 COST OF SALES Fundraising cost of sales 945 1,653 TOTAL COST OF SALES 945 1,653 GROSS PROFIT 102,498 75,321 Continues next page.

EXPENDITURE Salaries (management & administrative) 9,200 10,000 Salaries (artist & creative) 16,367 1,609 Salaries (casual staff) - 50 Bar costs 3,054 2,257 Exhibition equipment 63 - Exhibition materials 268 1,080 Gallery maintenance 752 977 GST 3,675 5,522 Design expenses 250 - Hospitality 382 240 Promotional material 651 422 Website - 114 Bank fees - 4 Depreciation 429 - Insurance 1,247 1,033 Internet and phone 1,014 1,039 Legal, finance and governance costs 282 319 Office sundries 241 277 Outgoings 2658 2,338 Rates 13,216 - Rent 50,064 46,798 Software subscriptions 38 70 Stationery 228 247 TOTAL EXPENDITURE 94,879 74,244 OPERATING RESULT 7,629 1,077

People

Board: Diego Ramirez Gallery Manager (Oct 2018 - current) Thea Jones Treasurer/Fundraising and Development Coordinator

Hanann Al Daqqa Engagement Liaison Maddy Anderson Volunteer Coordinator; Exhibition Liaison & Curatorial Mentor Jade Bitar Volunteer Coordinator (commenced Moorina Bonini First Nations Programming Coordinator (commenced Aug 2018) Andy Butler Exhibition Liaison & Curatorial Mentor Charlotte Christie Public Programs (Jan-Sep 2018); Partnerships & Development (Oct-) Harry Croft Legal Advisor (commenced Oct 2018) Chantelle Mitchell Emerging Writers Program Coordinator Sophie Moshakis Honorary Member Alec Reade Engagement Liaison (commenced April 2019) Ella Sowinska Exhibition Liaison & Curatorial Mentor (left March 2019) Leela Schauble Media Strategist Anita Spooner Public Programs Coordinator Siying Zhou Exhibition Liaison & Curatorial Mentor

Sponsors/Supporters

SEVENTH is supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, and the City of Yarra’s Creative Yarra 2017-2019 Grant Program.

SEVENTH gratefully acknowledges our bar sponsors: Sample Ale, and Four Pillars.