About
"Clothing and textiles are universal and transcend cultural boundaries"
Genevieve Memory is an interdisciplinary visual artist who also works in arts writing, curation and composing. Her practice combines painting and sculpture with fabric and textiles to create hybrid art objects imbued with poetic resonance.
The semiotics of the dress, Genevieve's rolling project, challenges viewers to reconsider rigid gender and identity boundaries in contemporary society by interrogating the sign-value of women’s clothing and its relationship to gender bias. Many theorists including Eco, Barthes and Wilson have proposed that clothing functions as a system of signs, or a kind of language. By using women’s clothing in her practice, she aims to engage viewers in a discussion about what it means to identify or be identified as a woman, non-binary or other person today. This work is important in the broader context because gender equality for women has not been achieved in Australia - women and girls of all identities continue to face disadvantage and discrimination due to persisting conscious and unconscious biases, evidenced by realities such as the widening gender pay gap.
Genevieve argues that clothing and textiles are universal and transcend cultural boundaries. Furthermore, through the concept of absence presence and with a hint of the uncanny, the women's clothing she uses stands in for the women themselves.
Career highlights for Genevieve include Dress Shop Window Wonderland at the Pine Rivers Window Gallery earlier this year and the community collaborative art project The Wondering Project at Bendigo's Dudley House in 2019.
Individual Visual Art exhibitions
April 2021 - The Semiotics of the Dress (Hobart), Sidespace Gallery, Salamanca Arts Centre, Hobart
February-March 2020 - Dress Shop Window Wonderland, Window Gallery, Pine Rivers Art Gallery, Strathpine
October 2019-ongoing - Revolving solo exhibition at The Post Lounge, film & television post-production house, Woolloongabba
September 2019 - My shiny new egalitarianism, Glass Box Gallery, Griffith QCA Southbank
August 2019 - The Semiotics of the Dress (Bendigo)/The Wondering Project (community collaborative art project), Dudley House, Bendigo (to coincide with the Bendigo community choir Women of Note's 20th Anniversary Gala)
March 2019 - The Semiotics of the Dress, Grey Street Gallery, Griffith QCA Southbank
August 2018 - Pictures of You, Glass Box Gallery, Griffith QCA Southbank
July - December 2017 - Outside In, Level 2, St Vincent's Private Hospital Brisbane
January - October 2016 - Outside In, Level 8, St Vincent's Private Hospital Brisbane
Group Visual Art exhibitions
TBA 2020 - Hall & Wilcox Acquisitive Art Show 2020, Brisbane CBD (postponed due to COVID-19)
March 2020 - PERSIST, International Women's Day show at Glass Box, Griffith QCA
January 2020 - Boiling Point, The Third Quarter gallery, Brisbane
January 2020 - Fifty Squared, Brunswick Street Gallery, Melbourne
August 2019 - Gems from the Closet, RQAS
October-November 2018 - Nobody wants to leave this party, Griffith QCA Graduate Exhibition, Southbank Campus
April 2018 - Blood and Water, Greaser Bar, Fortitude Valley
February 2018 - Green, Percolator Gallery
January - February 2018 - Expanded, Pop Gallery
July 2017 - Impressions 11, Impress Studios and Gallery
June 2017 - Outside In launch exhibition, St Vincent's Private Hospital Brisbane
February 2017 - New Ways of Seeing exhibition, privately hosted with Perrin Millard with guest artists Ingrid Bartkowiak, Nicole Atto and Nikki Evans
July 2016 - 50 Hour Print Project exhibition, White Box Gallery, Griffith University Queensland College of Art
June 2016 - Outside In launch exhibition, St Vincent's Private Hospital Brisbane
May 2016 - The Abstract Exhibition, RQAS
April 2016 - Harold and Agnes Richardson Memorial Drawing Prize, RQAS
March 2016 - Diversity in Print Prize, RQAS
February 2016 - New Ways of Seeing exhibition, privately hosted with Perrin Millard
November 2015 - Dirty Fingers, Love Love Studios Milton
Visual Art workshops and training
October 2019 - Brisbane Portrait Prize Symposium, Queensland College of Art, Griffith University
September - October 2019 - observational drawing and painting classes with David Fenoglio at Atelier, Salisbury
March 2019 - professional practice workshops in pitching and grant-writing
October 2018 - Legal workshop for creative practitioners with Arts Law, Artisan
November 2017 - January 2018 - Gerhard Richter lecture series, QAGOMA
October 2017 - Gerhard Richter: Questions for Painters postgraduate symposium, Queensland College of Art, Griffith University
January 2017 - Etching course (hard and soft ground) with Simon White, Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne
November 2016 - Etching and Collagraph Combined workshop with Gwenn Tasker, Impress Studios, Kedron
October 2016 - Print-making workshop (monoprint, chine colle, drypoint and screenprint) with Nancy Brown, BIA, Windsor
May 2016 - Shibori indigo dying workshop with Claudia Husband, South Brisbane
January 2016 - Etching course (hard-ground with aquatint) with Martin King, Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne
Curation and co-curation
February-March 2020 - Hall & Wilcox group show, Brisbane (postponed)
August 2019 - The Semiotics of the Dress (Bendigo)/The Wondering Project community collaborative art project (sole curator)
March 2019 - The Semiotics of the Dress, Grey Street Gallery (sole curator)
February 2018 - Green, Percolator Gallery (co-curator)
January - February 2018 - Expanded, Pop Gallery (sole curator)
February 2017 - New Ways of Seeing (co-curator)
February 2016 - New Ways of Seeing (co-curator)
Artist talks
March 2019 - Two solo artist talks for The Semiotics of the Dress
January 2018 - Group artist talk for Expanded
Collaborative art projects
March - August 2019 - The Wondering Project, Dudley House. A collaborative art project with the women from the Bendigo community choir, Women of Note
Publications
2019 - The Semiotics of the Dress (Bendigo), exhibition catalogue essay
2019 - The Power of Feminism and Feminist Art in the Contemporary Moment, essay
2019 - The Semiotics of the Dress, exhibition catalogue essay
2019 - Griffith University diary, Pictures of You portrait series, 2017-18
2018 (25 November) - Redlands Art and Culture, The Great Day Out, Channel 7, The Three Graces features in this short video as part of the Redland Art Awards 2018
2018 - Centenary, a collection of interviews with introductory essay to accompany the portrait series of the same name
Visual Art collections
2018 - Centenary book of interviews, National Library of Australia and State Library of Queensland John Oxley Library
2016-2017 - Artworks, St Vincent's Private Hospital Brisbane
2016-ongoing - Artworks, private collections
Visual Art memberships
2020 - Associate Member, Salamanca Arts Centre, Hobart
2019 - NAVA
2016-19 - Griffith University QCA Printmakers' Club
2016-17 - Print Council of Australia
Visual Art education
2015-June 2019 - Bachelor of Fine Art (Painting) with Distinction, Queensland College of Art, Griffith University
Visual Art education awards
2019 - Graduated with Distinction, Bachelor of Fine Art, Griffith University
2018 - Academic Excellence award, Bachelor of Fine Art, Griffith University
2017 - Academic Excellence award, Bachelor of Fine Art, Griffith University
2016 - Academic Excellence award, Bachelor of Fine Art, Griffith University
2015 - Academic Excellence award, Bachelor of Fine Art, Griffith University
Music and Language education, workshops and training
2009-2013 - French language Levels 2-6, Institute of Modern Languages, University of Qld
2000-ongoing - Self-publisher of original compositions
1988-ongoing - Composer
1994-1998 - Choral conducting classes, various institutions
1993-1998 - Kodaly method classes in music and voice, Clayfield School of Music, Brisbane
1992 - Dalcroze method classes in music, movement and piano improvisation, Institut Jacques Dalcroze, Geneva, Switzerland
1987-1990 - Bachelor of Music Education (Classroom), University of Queensland
1987-1988 - German language, second subject in education degree, University of Queensland
1985-1990 - Queensland Youth Orchestra member QYOI (now QYSO), QYO II, QYO III
Music publications
2020 - National Library of Australian and State Library of Queensland, complete set of printed works
2011-ongoing - Preliminary Grade SCSM Piano Examination Album, Banquet
2002 - Cited in Year 1-10 The Arts Curriculum, Queensland School Curriculum Council, as appropriate contemporary compositions for use in schools
Music commissions
2018-19 - Massed choir piece for Women of Note 20th Anniversary Gala, Bendigo, Victoria
2001 - Private commission
2001 - Recorder consort piece for St Laurence's College, South Brisbane
Music awards
2003 - Winner, Melbourne Women's Choir call for scores, Sleep and Dreams
Individual Music recordings
2000 - Scenes from an Imaginary Film, self-published
Group Music recordings
2009 - Sleep and Dreams, Voices of Birralee, directed by Julie Christiansen OAM
2005 - THE SYSTEM insane music, published by Brisbane Montessori School
1997 - Let Your Light Shine, published by Clayfield College
Music collections
2020 - Complete set of printed works, National Library of Australia and State Library of Queensland John Oxley Library (delivery post-COVID19 shutdowns)
2000-ongoing - Private, community and school collections
Music teaching and memberships
1993-1999 - Brisbane North District Review Panel member for Senior Music, Board of Senior Secondary School Studies
1991 - 2007 - Classroom music teacher, various state and private high schools and primary schools, Brisbane and Toowoomba
Community service
2019 - Devised, co-ordinated and produced the community collaborative art project, The Wondering Project, with the women of the community choir Women of Note, Bendigo. The project asked participants to reflect on a key experience in their lives as women
2012, 2014 - Fortnightly supply and delivery of a meal to a family with a disabled child, Brisbane
2002–2006 - Volunteer in the roles of Vice-President, Secretary and Newsletter Editor, CleftPALS Qld (cleft palate and lip society), Brisbane