Anarchive: knowledge follows form

Bridget Currie

Bridget Currie works across a range of modalities, including sculpture, performance, drawing, writing, public art, and installation. She explores the representation of abstract states of being and systems of thought, with a focus on social theory, art history, and ecology. Currie has exhibited widely, including at the Australian Experimental Art Foundation, Artspace Sydney, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, 24HR Art, the Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia, the Art Gallery of South Australia, and Artbank. In 2007–08, she was a resident at Center for Contemporary Art Kitakyushu in Japan, and in 2011 she was awarded an Anne and Gordon Samstag Scholarship and studied at the Kungliga Konsthögskolan in Stockholm. She is currently based in Adelaide, on Kaurna lands, in South Australia.

Bonita Ely

Born in 1946 in Mildura, Bonita Ely is one of Australia’s most important artists concerned with environmental and socio-political issues. Her artwork of the 1970s pre-empted environmental disasters that are now in full focus, as she explores relationships to the natural environment, other species, and each other. Exhibiting first in 1972 in London, Bonita Ely’s extensive experimental art practice is represented in international collections such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York, as well as the National Gallery of Australia. She has participated in significant contemporary art events such as Fieldwork: Australian Art 1968-2002, the opening of the Ian Potter Centre for Australian Art, Federation Square, Melbourne; documenta 14 in Kassel, Germany, and Athens in 2017; as well as the Biennale of Sydney in 2022 and 2024.

Dorothy Thompson

Dorothy (Dot) Thompson was born in Hamilton, New Zealand, in 1953 and moved to Australia when she was five years old. Her multi-disciplinary practice includes ceramics, photography, performance, drawing, scriptwriting, and wearable art. Thompson attended the South Australian School of Art, graduating in 1976. While in Adelaide, she was known for her satirical Budgie Events, which combined performance and music. Thompson moved to the Northern Territory in 1983, where she performed her radio scripts for the weekly arts show Surface Tension on ABC Radio National. She was selected for World of WearableArt, Wellington, in 2007, and her works are collected by Flinders University Museum of Art and the National Gallery of Australia.

John Davis

John Davis was born in Ballarat in 1936 and studied sculpture at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, graduating in 1966. He worked extensively in art education, teaching Sculpture and 3-D Design at Caulfield Institute of Technology, lecturing in Sculpture at Prahran College of Advanced Education, and later becoming a senior faculty member at the Victorian College of the Arts. Davis is known for his environmentally responsive works that utilise found objects, both man-made and directly sourced from environments. He participated in the 1973 Mildura Sculpture Triennale and the 1978 Venice Biennale, where he exhibited with Robert Owen and Ken Unsworth. In 1978, Davis was the first artist to have his work profiled in the National Gallery of Victoria Survey series. Davis passed away in 1999, and a retrospective exhibition of his work was held at the National Gallery of Victoria in 2010.

Alison Goodwin

Alison Goodwin, born in 1953, completed a Diploma of Fine Art (Sculpture) at the South Australian School of Art in 1978 before undertaking a Graduate Diploma in Education, specialising in visual arts education, graduating in 1980. The completion of a further qualification—a Graduate Diploma of Fine Art in 1983—saw her move into teaching printmaking and design, with time spent working at Flinders University, the South Australian College of Advanced Education, and various TAFEs, community workshops and secondary schools. Since the 1980s, Goodwin has gravitated towards two-dimensional studio practice, initially in screenprinting, and later lino relief, lithographic and etching techniques. During her time in Adelaide, she was involved with the Women’s Art Movement (WAM), participating in many of their projects and exhibitions. Now based in Queensland, Goodwin has work held in collections such as the Print Council of Australia, Brisbane City Art Gallery, Art Gallery of South Australia, Central Queensland University, and Parliament House.

Eva Yuen

Born in 1952 in Hong Kong, Eva Yuen Man-Wah has made significant contributions to experimental art through her installations, performances, and participatory actions. She has been an artist-in-residence in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore when not living in Hong Kong. During the 1970s, she spent time in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, where she developed important projects exploring cultural exchange. While in Adelaide, she was a resident artist at the Experimental Art Foundation. In Aotearoa New Zealand, Yuen made Kapiti Island Experiences (1978) as part of the Project Programme at the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki. Along with Ian Hunter, she developed the Women’s Art Archive project in 1979 and was a founding member of the Wellington Artists Co-op. Returning to Australia, Yuen participated in the 5th Sydney Biennial, in 1984, where she applied innovative techniques based on traditional bamboo-paper binding in her installation The Third Face (1984).

Poppy Johnson

Poppy Johnson is a New York-based performance artist, activist, and former librarian known for her work in the 1970s involving feminist art, conceptual writing, and political activism. She was a founding member of the Guerrilla Art Action Group and participated in actions including the 1969 Bloodbath protest at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, which called for the removal of the Rockefeller family from the museum’s Board of Trustees due to war profiteering. Johnson was a member of Women Artists in Revolution, which fought for equal representation for women in the art world. She took part in the Ad Hoc Committee of Women Artists—along with Lucy Lippard and Faith Ringgold—protesting the lack of female representation in museum exhibitions, specifically at the Whitney Museum.