STILL WAITING FOR TOMORROW

STILL WAITING FOR TOMORROW is a visual art project which, by reprising graphics and text printed onto twentieth century ephemera, aims to animate the history of women’s activism through the creation of new work.

The work is currently on exhibition in FIRST, FIRSTS, at the Cross Art Projects Sydney with Alex Martinis Roe, Anon, Belle Blau, Ciara Phillips & Jessie Street Women's Library.

Funded by the Gender Institute, Associate Professor Alison Alder from the School of Art and Design at the ANU has created a body of new work to remind ourselves that, whilst the maxim that history repeats itself is true, we would do well to remember that we need to continue to agitate for change.

As Dr Catriona Moore writes, in an essay describing the exhibition,

The artists insist upon the embodied memory of (often contested) sites and places of feminist activism, retrieving vulnerable pre-digital material (conflicting memories, DIY actions, low-cost artworks, vulnerable ephemera) as herstorical insights that can set the record straight, and in the process offer us examples of truth-telling, coalitional action, resilience and optimism. This herstorical imagination opens up new avenues of thinking and looking “at a world facing climate-induced catastrophe, global pandemics and weakening democratic processes – all of which negatively impact upon women” as Alison Alder describes STILL WAITING FOR TOMORROW. The contemporary resurgence of placards used both in situ and online remain potent methods of communication. Such moments of exchange, joint effort and solidarity, highlight the power of community. Feminist art practice and history continues a legacy of truth-telling and idealism whose power is still palpable.

The exhibition is open until 10 April, 2021 Thursday to Saturday, 11am – 6pm (closes 4pm Saturday).

Alison Alder gratefully acknowledges the artists and graphic designers whose original artworks are featured in STILL WAITING FOR TOMORROW. This project received funding from the ANU Gender Institute and the majority of the ephemera is preserved in the Noel Butlin Archives Centre at the Australian National University.