Seeing voices

Seeing voices is a touring exhibition that seeks to diversify and complicate our understanding of the voice through the prism of contemporary art. Works in the exhibition explore how the voice might act as a metaphor for collective action, for speaking out against injustice and coming together in gestures of solidarity. The voice can be a marker of cultural and geographic specificity, or the trace of disappearing language. It may also function like a spiritual medium; through its historical recording and archiving it time-travels to haunt the present. The voice is also an index, a measure of position, perspective, distance and emotion. In private, in public, in conversation, on record – the voice connects our experiences with those of others. 

Seeing voices draws upon the Monash University Collection as a springboard to think about the theme of the voice and the ways it can be seen, used and reimagined in contemporary art. The exhibition encompasses artworks across a range of media, including drawing, painting, video, sculpture and photography, creating a textured and layered environment in the galleries. In addition to selected artworks from the Monash University Collection, Seeing voices features loans from Australian and international artists.

Seeing voices A NETS Victoria and Monash University Museum of Art | MUMA touring exhibition

National Exhibitions Touring Support (NETS) Victoria is supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body, and through the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments. NETS Victoria also receives significant in-kind support from the National Gallery of Victoria.

Image: Michael COOK, MAJORITY RULE (PARLIAMENT)  2014, inkjet print on paper, 104 x 144 cm (framed), Monash University Collection, Courtesy of the Artist + Andrew Baker Art Dealer Brisbane, and Dianne Tanzer + This is No Fantasy Melbourne.