Closer Together

Background: The research situates the project in curatorial studies literature focusing on the underrepresentation of marginalised artists in the Australian context, as a form of ‘curatorial activism’ as advocated by author Maura Reilly (2018) an intersectional feminist curator who promotes curating as a platform to champion underrepresented artistic voices through diverse representation. Closer Together draws from the Hong Kong Art School /RMIT School of Art cross-cultural community to consider the voices of artists, who are both alumni and lecturing artists from Hong Kong and Melbourne. Contribution: The curation of Closer Together reflects on the 25-year cross-cultural relationship between the HKAS and RMIT’s School of Art. The artists were selected based themes of intimacy and kinship, as reflected in the partnership. Taking inspiration from a passage in the classic Chinese text the Tao Te Ching, it suggests that the world is made up of what we know and what we don’t know, which are ultimately the same. Closer Together proposes that togetherness, creative dialogue and art making can help us understand the hidden – that through these processes we can come to better know the mysteries of the unknown, a process which occurs through art education and enlightens us further in our understanding of our world. Significance: This project was presented at RMIT Gallery to contribute towards presenting diverse cultural programming. The project was supported by the Hong Kong Art School (HKAS) and the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, Sydney (HKETO, Sydney).