TAMMY  WONG  HULBERT   黄雪慧

News Archive

THE INCLUSIVE MUSEUMS CONFERENCE

University of Granada, Granada, Spain

September 6-8, 2018


It was an amazing experience to attend the Inclusive Museums conference at the University of Granada, Granada, Spain. The conference was attended by delegates from all over the world, both from industry and academia. It was great to have the shared interest and discussions on strategies towards working in a more inclusive framework in the development of exhibitions and how to engage audiences. I presented my research work on 'Curating Inclusive Cities' with three other interesting colleagues who were also concerned about how we create urban environments which gives marginalised communities a voice in society through exhibition and curatorial practices. Such an enjoyable few days with good company, new friends and an amazing part of Spain to explore!

WAIPO (GRANDMOTHERS)
Seen through the Eyes of Six Contemporary Chinese Australian Artists
Chinese Museum, Melbourne, May - August, 2018

The Waipo (Grandmothers) exhibition features artists Nicholas Chin, Tammy Wong Hulbert, Emilia Johari, Judy Leong, Yinghong Li, and Xiao Yu Ba, curated by Joyce Agee and Nicholas Chin. Two Wongs Making a White imagines a relationship between my Grandmother and myself which never existed. The work shines a light on the impact of 'White Australia' when the migration of Chinese wives were often denied, resulting in families being separated. Stories of my Grandmother have often haunted me, leading to producing a work that cares for her narrative and creates a place for her in our family through imagining the offering of a meal, a way of feeding my 'hungry ghost'. This exhibition is part of collaborative project by the Multicultural Museums Victoria which includes Italian Historical Society & Museo Italiano, the Hellenic Museum, the Islamic Museum of Australia and the Jewish Museum of Australia. Image: Two Wongs Making a White, mixed media installation, 2018, Photograph: Shane Hulbert. Recently Two Wongs Making a White was accepted as part of the Hidden in Rookwood, Sept-Oct, 2019.

HYPHENATED

An exhibition presented by The Substation, Newport
March 22 - April 21, 2018

An exhibition of contemporary art by Victorian-Asian artists navigating the hyphenated space between cultures

Co-curated by By Phuong Ngo and Tammy Wong Hulbert
Artists: Rushdi Anwar, Sofi Basseghi and Ehsan Khoshnami, Andy Butler, Rhett D’Costa, Tammy Wong Hulbert, 
Nikki Lam, Eugenia Lim, Slippage, Vipoo Srivilasa and Hoang Tran Nguyen 

Presented by The Substation and supported by RMIT CAST, MAV and Peril

This exhibition brings together the works of artists of Asian-Australian backgrounds based in Victoria. The exhibition explores the hyphenated space between cultures and how this informs the perspectives of artists who identify with several cultural outlooks.

Image: Still...what is left, Nikki Lam, video, 2017, from The Substation website.

In recent months, Hyphenated the exhibition has evolved to become HYPHENATED PROJECTS a platform for transcultural arts practices, watch this space for future developments.

HYPHENATED: ART & INTERCULTURAL IDENTITY

RMIT CAST/MAV Artists Panel Discussion

Wed 28 March, 2018, 5-7pm, Storey Hall


Artists Rushdi Anwar, Sofi Basseghi and Ehsan Khoshnami, Andy Butler, Rhett D’Costa, Tammy Wong Hulbert, 
Nikki Lam, Phuong Ngo, Vipoo Srivilasa and Hoang Tran Nguyen presented their approaches to their work in the exhibition Hyphenated. Artists presented their diverse perspectives, critiquing their position in the Australian context, leading to a rich conversation of how living between cultural spaces informs one's sense of self and cultural outlook. The panel was presented by RMIT Contemporary Art and Social Transformation and Multicultural Arts Victoria (MAV), hosted by Andy Miller, General Manager, MAV. Image: Panel speakers in action - Rushdi Anwar, Sofi Basseghi and Ehsan Khoshnami, Andy Butler, Rhett D’Costa (top) and Hoang Tran Nguyen, Tammy Wong Hulbert, Phuong Ngo, Nikki Lam, Vipoo Srivilasa and Andy Miller of MAV (bottom).

ANONYMOUS SOJOURNERS IN THE AUSTRALIAN BUSH

Working with the St Andrews, Victoria community, Dec 2017 - March 2018


Anonymous Sojourners in the Australian Bush is a socially engaged public art project with the St Andrews community of Melbourne and Nillumbik Shire as part of their Living in the Landscape Public Arts Incubator. The project looks back in time, investigating the unknown history of anonymous Chinese miners from the 1850s. The project focuses on how contemporary art can reimagine and reconnect with a forgotten migrant community history and is developed in collaboration with the St Andrews Men's Shed. The project has now been decommissioned. Two of the lanterns remain inside at the Wadambuk Community Centre and four will be become part of the St Andrews Primary School community.

Transformations, Art and the City

July, 2017


Transformations, Art and the City edited by Professor Elizabeth M. Grierson was launched on Wednesday 26 July, 2017 at RMIT School of Art. The book is an edited book exploring the relationship between art, cities and public spaces and the transformative power of art and features the writing of artists and researchers of the Centre for Art, Society and Transformation. The book features my chapter on Applying the Creative City: Curating Art in urban spaces, a chapter which originated from my PhD research on The City as Curated Space (2011). The book is published by Intellect Books and is distributed through University of Chicago Press.

New Book Chapter: Sustainability Citizenship in Cities

June, 2016

A new Routledge publication Sustainability Citizenship and Cities (2016) edited by Ralph Horne, John Fien, Beau Beza and Anitra Nelson has been launched and contains a chapter of mine called Curating the City: Encouraging Sustainability. The books seeks to explain how sustainability citizenship can manifest as various rights and responsibilities of citizens in urban environments and from various research angles. The chapter I wrote for this publication discussed the Flavours of Glenroy (2013-15) a public art project, I initiated using Mobile Edible Gardens. The chapter focuses on the  the role public based arts can play in connecting communities by encouraging sustainable practices. The book was officially launched on Friday 17 June, 2016 5pm at RMIT University in Storey Hall.

BELONGING & THE TRANSIENT HOME

A collaborative public art project with Vicseg Social Health Group, April 2016

Research paper published January 2018


Belonging and the Transient Home was a project building on my interest in how art can play a role in encouraging inclusive cities and communities. The project emerged from my earlier work in Glenroy, Victoria on the Artists Incubator project. Building on an existing relationship with the Vicseg Asylum Seekers Social Health Group, this project was specifically developed with the Iranian family playgroup, based in the northern suburb of Broadmeadows, Melbourne. The project explored ways in which an art based project, can be developed with newly arrived migrant communities, with the aim of encouraging participation in creativity, through a public outcome. This project explores the overarching theme of belonging in a new urban society, explored through the sharing of culture, themes of mobility, which encourage a rethinking of our relationship with the ever increasingly complex idea of home.  Read my recent journal article reflecting on this work in the International Journal of Practice Based Humanities published in Volume 2, January, 2018.


Speaking at the Andy Warhol - Ai Weiwei exhibition at the NGV

February-April, 2016

In February, March and April I was invited by the NGV, Melbourne to speak on Ai Weiwei's work June 1994 during the Andy Warhol - Ai Weiwei exhibition. The talk I presented was The City as a Site for Subversive Expression which discussed China in the mid 1990s, which was at a crossroads, transforming from rural to urban, a result of a communist society embracing capitalism. This talk focuses on placing the work June 1994 in the social and cultural context of a rapidly transforming city, Beijing and discussed the impact of these changes on the contemporary art community.

Through the process of preparing for the exhibition, I went back through my archive of old catalogues and discovered that I had also been in a show with Ai Weiwei in Ping Yao, back in my China days in the early 2000s! Such fond memories I have of that time in my life.The final talk was given at the closing weekend of the exhibition and I was amazed to see the huge numbers of people attending the show, the gallery is doing a great job at attracting new audiences.


Gathering Glenroy: Wrapping up the Incubator experience

November, 2015

The Artists Incubator: Glenroy Team hosted Gathering Glenroy on Saturday 14 November, 2015 11am-3pm, at the Wheatsheaf Hub, Glenroy. This was an art event for the Glenroy community to participate in a series of workshops run by the artists of the residency.

The artists of the Incubator residency hosted the event as a way of engaging with the Glenroy community in art making and sharing our 'gathered' experiences with the broader community.  This event is a continuation of the research being undertaken under the Artists Incubator: Glenroy Research Framework. The research team are now preparing for reflecting the project to develop a publication to share their findings. For more information visit the Artists Incubator Website. View a summary of the research project via this AIG prezi presentation.


Artists Incubator: Glenroy introducing the artists

March, 2015

After a busy summer break, the Artists Incubator: Glenroy research project is starting to take shape. We have selected our artists, Rebecca Mayo, James Voller, Phil Edwards and Sofi Basseghi. The artists are currently being inducted into our incubator space and are starting to get themselves ready for working with the local community. Pictured above is our participation in the Glenroy Festival on Sunday 22 March, 2015 with 'The Great Mobile Edible Garden Community Race' to raise funds for Vicseg's Asylum Seeker Playgroup. The race was a great success, with many people from different parts of the community taking part.

Artists Incubator: Glenroy is an RMIT University Centre for Art, Society and Transformation research project. AIG will focus on a program of resident artists working in our Wheatsheaf Hub Studio for an extended period of time to develop socially engaged projects with public based outcomes. The project focuses on the role art can play in urban communities in building capacity, encourage new relationships, provide a platform for a community's self reflection and encourage a sense of belonging.  Watch the race here.


New participatory work Take Me, I'm yours 

installed in a Brunswick laneway

October, 2014 

Take me, I'm Yours, was a recent public art project developed with the Mountfield and Howard Lane Community in Brunswick. The group recently formed to protect the local bluestone laneway heritage of the neighbourhood and have become a community gardening group. My recent interests in how we can encourage participation in the our urban environments led to this experiment of creating a vertical garden to share with the broader community, encouraging passer-bys to take some of the edible plants for their own use. The project brings together several areas of my interests in public art, urban communities and my training in ceramics. Pictured above is Suzy Pinchen watering the planters which are located at the back of her house.


Mobile Edible Garden intervention
Flavours of Glenroy is launched

May, 2014

In late 2013, collaborative artists Rowena Booth, Shane Hulbert and I, proposed an art in public space project Flavours of Glenroy. We were awarded a Connecting Community Grant from Moreland City Council to develop this participatory art event which involves locals of the suburb of Glenroy, Victoria. The project links to a larger strategy the Glenroy Artist Incubator investigating how locally situated public art based projects can activate and connect suburban central activities districts.

The project was based around the idea of a participatory based art event taking place in Post Office Place on Saturday May 17, 2014. Using Mobile Edible Gardens, we connected with the local community through dialogue on the pleasure of eating, growing and cooking food, a universal experience enjoyed in many diverse cultures. The act of handing out edible plants and herbs to the passing public, were exchanged for answering the question “What will you cook with these plants?”

The intention of this project was to connect to the local community through the common experience of food and to look towards creative methods of capturing a snapshot of the diversity of local culinary practices and cultural influences in the suburb. The findings recorded by these interactions with the public will contribute towards a book that will celebrate the many cultural influences that exists in Glenroy.

This project was developed in partnership with Scope, a Victorian disability service provider. The people supported by Scope participated in the process by growing the plants that were shared with the local community. This project is also a project of Art, Cities and Transformation, an RMIT University Research Centre. For more information and images visit the Flavours of Glenroy site.


HK ID exhibition opens at the Chinese Museum, Melbourne

October 7 - December 20, 2013


HK ID presents a selection of work by local and international photographers exploring Hong Kong Identity after fifteen years have passed since the handing over of Hong Kong as a British Colony to Chinese rule. During this time, the people of Hong Kong have been reflecting upon their transformed identities under these new social and political circumstances.

Presented in this exhibition is a glimpse of photographers interpretations of the currently transitioning Hong Kong identity. The exhibition features the work of eight artists from Australia and Hong Kong John Billan, Lau Chi Chung, Daphne Ho, Jerry Ho, Shane Hulbert, Tammy Wong Hulbert, Rorce Lau, Bronek Kozka. This exhibition was curated in partnership with the Chinese Museum and will be shown on their Level 1 Gallery from 7 October – 20 December 2013. The exhibition is part of RMIT's Art in Chinatown program of exhibitions. The exhibition was co-curatored by Daphne Ho (HK), Shane Hulbert and Tammy Wong Hulbert. Image above: Shane Hulbert's cityscape.

Lumens Festival: Curating the Ancient City publication now available

November, 2013

The Lumens Festival: Curating the Ancient City publication is published. The Lumens Festival was a contemporary Australian and Chinese photography and video projection festival originally developed for the Ping Jiang Road canals of Suzhou, Jiangsu, China, May 2012. The resulting video works from the project were also screened at Federation Square, Melbourne, December, 2012 - January, 2013. The project was supported by the Victorian Government and built on the existing Sister State relationship between Victoria and Jiangsu province, China. The publication features scholarly reflections on the project by the curatorial team and an introduction by Susan van Wyk, Senior Curator of Photography, National Gallery of Victoria and is available through Australian Scholarly Publishing.


Lumens Festival: Melbourne is screened at Federation Square, Melbourne 

Thursday December 6, 2012
Dec 2012 - Jan 2013 - Big Screen, Federation Square

The Lumens Festival team would like to announce we are partnering with Federation Square to screen the Festival in Melbourne! The exhibition will feature the work of contemporary Victorian photography exhibited in Suzhou, China in May 2012. The project was developed by the curatorial team Geoff Hogg, Shane Hulbert, Clare Leporati and myself. The project is supported by the Victorian Government and will build on the existing Sister State relationship Victoria has with Jiangsu province, China. For more information visit the Lumens Festival website. A publication about the project is currently under production, to be published by Australian Scholarly Publishing, available in October, 2013.


Lumens Festival: Curating the Ancient City is activated the
canals of Suzhou, China

May 11-13, 2012, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China

A new public exhibition of contemporary Victorian and Jiangsu photography was exhibited in Suzhou, China in May 2012 as a night festival, running over three nights. The project was developed by the curatorial team Shane Hulbert, Geoff Hogg and Clare Leporati and I. The project was to be supported by the Victorian Government Department of Premier and Cabinet, building and enhancing the existing sister state relationship between Victoria and Jiangsu province, China.

Gateway: Melbourne exhibition is launched at the Chinese Museum, Melbourne

April 2011

The Gateway exhibition opened on Monday 18 April, 2011. The exhibition launches RMIT University's Art in Chinatown Strategy, a strategy proposed to activate contemporary art in the Chinatown Precinct. Gateway is an exhibition of contemporary art dealing with intercultural dialogue between China and Australia from multiple perspectives. Artists featured in the exhibition includes Geoff Hogg, Cameron Robbins, Clare Leporati, Greg Szopa, Claire Tracey, Joanna Buckley, Maggie McCormick, Shao Xiong Chia, Tammy Wong and Jacqui Chan, Julian Clavijo and from Shanghai, China Wei Tianyu & Angela Zhang. The exhibition was held at the Museum of Chinese Australian History - Level 1, 22 Cohen Place, Melb, Vic. The exhibition closed on May 23, 2011.

Meridians: Shanghai, China as part of Victorian contribution to Shanghai World Expo

May, 2010, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China

May 2010 - RMIT's Design Research Institute Intervention through Meridians: Shanghai 2010 Art & Sound in Public Space project was launched in May 2010, Shanghai. The exhibition features the work of Shanghai based artist Wei Tianyu, Wang Kai, Zhang Lang Sheng and Australian Artists Cameron Robbins, Claire Tracey and Joanna Buckley Curated by Tammy Wong, Clare Leporati, Geoff Hogg and Rupa Ramanathan. The exhibition was developed in collaboration with East China Normal University, Shanghai and is support by Arts Victoria and the Department of Innovation, Industry and Regional Development. The exhibition is officially part of the Victorian Cultural Contribution of the Australian Pavilion to the Shanghai World Expo.