Wayfind at Emely Baker
Monday 23 April 2018
The Emely Baker Centre recently underwent a minor refurbishment and is now available as a venue for hire. The first use of the Centre will be for the upcoming exhibition Wayfind, as part of the Next Wave Festival, 2018. Melbourne based writer and curator Amelia Winata has commissioned several Australian artists to respond to the site.
“The Emely Baker Building represents a number of social and political elements that are relevant over forty years after its erection. Built as a council run maternity health unit in the City of Yarra that is situated on Wurundjeri land, the site elicits dialogues around concepts of gender, bureaucracy, class and colonisation. Furthermore, given the history of the site — first as a maternity health centre, then as an empty, uninhabited space (that spanned close to a decade) and soon as a council run community centre for hire — thought-provoking questions around representation and the coming together of private and public also come to the fore. As such, this building has been the perfect site for exploring the myriad ways that architecture can speak to various social and identity groups and can be reinterpreted over history. Wayfind brings together six artists — Spence Messih, Jessie Bullivant, Brian Fuata, Debris Facility, Dean Cross and Shannon Lyons — who are interested in the intersection between the built environment and the socio-historical aspects that this building encompasses. All six have created works that respond to the site in a way that highlights the structure, throwing into sharp relief a sorely overlooked building that has had many incarnations over a short life time”.
Wayfind is a co-commissioned project between Next Wave and West Space, and is supported by the City of Yarra.
The exhibition is free and runs from 6-20 May 2018, Wednesday – Sunday 12pm – 6pm.
More information on Wayfind can be found here:
https://arts.yarracity.vic.gov.au/whats-on/2018/05/05/wayfind
More information on the Emely Baker Centre can be found here:
https://arts.yarracity.vic.gov.au/book-a-venue/emely-baker
The Emely Baker Centre recently underwent a minor refurbishment and is now available as a venue for hire. The first use of the Centre will be for the upcoming exhibition Wayfind, as part of the Next Wave Festival, 2018. Melbourne based writer and curator Amelia Winata has commissioned several Australian artists to respond to the site.
“The Emely Baker Building represents a number of social and political elements that are relevant over forty years after its erection. Built as a council run maternity health unit in the City of Yarra that is situated on Wurundjeri land, the site elicits dialogues around concepts of gender, bureaucracy, class and colonisation. Furthermore, given the history of the site — first as a maternity health centre, then as an empty, uninhabited space (that spanned close to a decade) and soon as a council run community centre for hire — thought-provoking questions around representation and the coming together of private and public also come to the fore. As such, this building has been the perfect site for exploring the myriad ways that architecture can speak to various social and identity groups and can be reinterpreted over history. Wayfind brings together six artists — Spence Messih, Jessie Bullivant, Brian Fuata, Debris Facility, Dean Cross and Shannon Lyons — who are interested in the intersection between the built environment and the socio-historical aspects that this building encompasses. All six have created works that respond to the site in a way that highlights the structure, throwing into sharp relief a sorely overlooked building that has had many incarnations over a short life time”.
Wayfind is a co-commissioned project between Next Wave and West Space, and is supported by the City of Yarra.
The exhibition is free and runs from 6-20 May 2018, Wednesday – Sunday 12pm – 6pm.
More information on Wayfind can be found here:
https://arts.yarracity.vic.gov.au/whats-on/2018/05/05/wayfind
More information on the Emely Baker Centre can be found here:
https://arts.yarracity.vic.gov.au/book-a-venue/emely-baker
