Often designed to reject the individualistic and hierarchical nature of the mainstream arts sector, collectives have become likened to a type of family unit. Replicating the habits of kinship and providing solidarity, understanding and connection for artists with a shared identity and lived experience.
For people of colour, collectives often testify to a shared experience of marginalization. Where people of colour are systematically denied access to institutional art structures – the galleries, the publishing houses, the commissions and contracts – they forge creative communities of their own. They create spaces to foreground the urgency and agency of their work and create community as a means of resistance and collective preservation.
Join editor and founder of Bia! Zine, Victory Nwabu-Ekeoma (Ireland) and writer and curator Sabina McKenna (Melbourne) in conversation with members of Melbourne-based art collectives, Saluhan and MÄHALLÄ Ù…Øلة, as we discuss collectivity as resistance and creative approaches to building community.
Victory Nwabu-Ekeoma Speaker
Victory Nwabu-Ekeoma is a Nigerian-Irish writer, artist, zine-maker, content designer and the founder and editor of Bia! Zine – an independently published publication that explores the immigrant experience in Ireland through food
Sabina McKenna Speaker
Sabina McKenna is an Australian writer and curator of Nigerian-Irish heritage. She is the creator of the Where are you from? project, a photojournalistic series about cultural identity.
Saluhan Speaker
Saluhan is a Filipinx/o collective based in Naarm, Melbourne on Wurundjeri Country.
Saluhan was created to establish a network between creatives in Australia and the Philippines and has since expanded to include collaborative projects that combine arts and community development. Their practice is underpinned by notions of kinship, reciprocity, and the desire to create spaces that interweave artistry and community.
MÄHALLÄ Ù…Øلة Speaker
MÄHALLÄ Ù…Øلة is an inclusive and creative community hub for the Middle Eastern & Anatolian diaspora in Naarm & beyond.