Exhibitions Manager and Curator
The Dax Centre is a not-for-profit art gallery that houses the Cunningham Dax Collection. This collection comprises over 16,000 artworks made by people who have experienced mental illness and psychological trauma. All exhibitions at The Dax Centre bring a focus to emotional and mental wellbeing, by exploring the interface between art, creativity and the mind.
I co-curated the following exhibitions with a range of mental health professionals. My role was to bring an arts perspective to the exhibitions, to undertake all practical curatorial tasks including condition reporting, framing and installation, as well as guiding the exhibition design, exhibition text and methods of display. It was also my role to produce content for the catalogues, including extended catalogue essays, and also to write the publicity text.
The Emotional World of Children
The Dax Centre
26 September 2013 – 28 January 2014
Co-curated with Dr. Pia Brous
This exhibition explored the emotional world of the child by showcasing a selection of artworks created by children in psychoanalytical psychotherapy sessions with renowned child psychotherapist Margaret Ericksen between the 1940s and 1980s. A variety of psychiatric disturbances were surveyed, whilst the importance of play, family and fairy-tales were also examined. The exhibition featured artifacts from the Royal Children's Hospital and a documentary film, produced as part of the project, on the history and practice of child psychotherapy in Australia.
Image: Photograph: Anna Zagala
Hide and Seek: Self-Portraits from the Cunningham Dax Collection
The Dax Centre
1 February – 23 June 2012
Co-curated with Dr. Anna Takács
Hide and Seek explored the tension between what is revealed and what is concealed in self-portraiture. This exhibition brought together 56 self-portraits, including works on paper, sculpture and textiles. Traversing the allusive and fluctuating territory of self-perception, Hide and Seek brought forth totem creatures, symbolic incarnations, monstrous visions and palpable internal pain. This exhibition emphasised the multiplicity and mutability of the self, tackled mortality head-on and examined the relationship between interiority and the physical self.
Image: Installation view, The Dax Centre, 2012.
Out of the Dark: the Emotional Legacy of the Holocaust
The Dax Centre
21 October 2009 – 23 January 2010
Co-curated with Gail Rockman
This exhibition explored the continuing physical and psychological effects of the Holocaust on three generations of survivors.
This exhibition was the culmination of a collaborative project between the Jewish Holocaust Centre and The Dax Centre. The project included the acquisition of over 100 artworks made by Holocaust survivors, involving extended interviews with each of the twenty artists about their experience of the Holocaust.
When confronting the subject of the Holocaust the darkness is overwhelming. But when I met and began working with the artists, I was struck by their strength, perseverance, hope and positivity.
Image: Michelle Fox, People I should have known and people I should have known better, 2009 (detail)
Beyond the Three Trees
The Dax Centre
13 November 2008–9 April 2009
Co-curated with Dr. Tracy Spinks
This exhibition presented a selection of 'three-tree-tests', produced by psychiatric patients at the point of admission to Royal Park Hospital in the 1960s. These drawings were used to assess the patients' character and state of mind, a now outmoded practice. These works were presented alongside contemporary paintings and drawings of trees from the Cunningham Dax Collection. The personal, anthropomorphic and symbolic significance of the tree was explored.
Image: Installation shot from Orange Regional Gallery, 2008
Selected Touring Exhibitions 2011 - 2014
As Exhibitions Manager at The Dax Centre, I initiated and delivered the following touring exhibition program, which included multidisciplinary public programs organised in collaboration with local communities.
2014
Healing Childhood Trauma
G3 Gallery, Parkdale
23 April – 21 May
Reverie
The Warehouse, Clunes
May - June
Hide and Seek: Self-Portraits from the Cunningham Dax Collection
Wagga Wagga Regional Gallery
16 August – 26 October
2013
Hide and Seek: Self-Portraits from the Cunningham Dax Collection
LaTrobe Regional Gallery, Morwell
23 March – 19 May
Out of the Dark: the Emotional Legacy of the Holocaust
Yarra Ranges Regional Museum
13 July – 15 September
Selected Works from the Cunningham Dax Collection
Melbourne Exhibition Centre
21-23 August
Selected Works from the Cunningham Dax Collection
Shibuya Hikari-e Building, Tokyo
4 – 12 July
The Door in the Dark
RMIT Gallery, Melbourne
3 September – 19 October
Selected Works from the Cunningham Dax Collection
Edenhope Secondary College
7 – 13 October
2012
Picturing Mother and Child
Sunraysia Ethnic Communities Council, Mildura
7 March – 4 June
Hide and Seek: Self Portraits from the Cunningham Dax Collection
Gordon Gallery, Geelong
3 October – 26 October
Melancholia
Arts Space Wodonga
1 October - 26 October
Out of the Dark: the Emotional Legacy of the Holocaust
Migration Museum, Adelaide
25 August – 11 November
2011
Healing Childhood Trauma
Monash Medical Centre
7 April – 9 June
Youth, Interrupted
Gordon Gallery, Geelong
16 May – 6 June
Selected Works from the Cunningham Dax Collection
Australian Embassy, Washington DC
4 November – 2 December