They will flee like chaff scattered by the wind or like dust whirling before a storm was produced as a commission by British artists Hannah Quinlan & Rosie Hastings for 1856, with proceeds going towards future programming.

This edition of two prints brings together the Michelangelo sketch, Archers Shooting at a Herm, with a scene of modern revolt against a hostile white police force, depicting the tense relationship between states of power and the LGBTQ+ community. Quinlan & Hastings’ diptych represents an unruly clash of registers such as the disciplining power of the state, here depicted in a moment of crisis, and the rebellious energy of the people who protest and occupy public spaces.

A special edition signed and numbered by the artists can be purchased directly from 1856, details can be found here.

Produced the occasion of the screening of Tom Zubrycki’s unfinished documentary film on the history of the Australian labour movement, from the 1850’s up until the bicentenary of 1988. Originally sponsored by the Australian Council for Trade Unions, produced by Film Australia, and funded by the Australian Bicentennial Authority, the film was effectively censored when the ACTU rejected the film’s representation of union history.

With an excerpt from John Hughes’ manuscript for his essay Zubrycki’s Point: Amongst Equals, utilitarian film in the Australian labour movement, on the controversy surrounding the production of Amongst Equals.

Designed by Ziga Testen.

More information on the screenings can be found here.

Produced on the occasion of Lisa Adkins’ talk discussing how we might rethink the maintenance and reproduction of the household today. She preposes that we think of this as a relationship between the household and its necessary, contracted payments to finance capital (for utilities and services, as loan repayments, rent, etc.)

The talk was co-presented with Benison Kilby, as a part of her exhibition “Bodies of Work”. The exhibition looked at how a group of artists respond to the intersections of reproductive, care, and feminised labour that maintain, and increasingly define, our current living conditions.

Designed by Ziga Testen.

More information on the talk can be found here and a recording of the talk can be found here.

Pamphlet for the exhibition of one work by Charlotte Posenenske, exhibited in-situ in a training room at the offices of the United Workers Union. The work was from her “DW Series” (1967), a minimal set of square cardboard tubes which are collaboratively put together by participants in the context where they are exhibited.

Wednesday 18 December 2019 6–8pm
United Workers Union
Lvl 1, 833 Bourke St, Docklands, VIC 3008

Organised by Nicholas Tammens with Imogen Beynon and Eloise Sweetman. The first configuration was made by Cameron Stops, Bridget Erin Flack, Megan Berry, Jenna Christie, Kate O’Brien, Zarah and Rhodes—all union organisers at the United Workers Union.

Designed by Ziga Testen.

You can find more on the exhibition here

As part of Paris Internationale 2019, 1856 presented “Everything is fine” with work by Patricia L. Boyd, Ian Burn, Lauren Burrow, and Fred Lonidier.

The work of art is possibly one of the only commodities with equal claim to both private and civic space. It is due to how artworks are embedded in our social relations that we recognise their different values: as historical artefacts, as objects of appreciation (“beautiful” or sensible to taste), political critiques, private financial investments, modes of communication, public documents of the national imaginary—the list goes on. However, the line that divides private and civic has become ever more indiscernible in recent decades—for instance, the erosion of public infrastructure and state industry, private capitalisation on culture and entertainment, the withering of the 8 hour work day, the return of 19th century work conditions, and the ongoing enclosure of our personal lives by a new technological industrialism. In response we might ask, in a reflective manner, what capacity the work of art has to represent these problems at the different points of its reception. The four artists selected here, at different times and with different methods, have asked this of their work.

Curated by Nicholas Tammens. Designed by Ziga Testen.

More on information can be found here.

Catalogue for a season of film screenings at Melbourne Cinematheque focusing on the work of Harun Farocki, presented by 1856.

Designed by Lucas Quigley.

You can find more on the program here.