Artist Alison Alder’s Enlighten projection highlights some of the women who fought for others. Photo: DPS/AUSPIC.
Visitors to Australia’s democratic heart can take a peek into how that democracy developed when they visit a new exhibition.
Printmaker Alison Alder’s I AM A NEW WOMAN sees her still prints transformed into a moving light show projected onto Parliament House as part of this year’s Enlighten Festival.
When designing and creating the initial screenprints, Alison turned to activists from the 19th and early 20th centuries.
“There was a huge movement by women to not only gain the right to vote and stand for Parliament, but a whole raft of things – like equitable diverse law, equal pay strategies, prevention of violence against women,” she says.
“There was this huge movement that was mobilising [and] women were mobilising.”
I AM A NEW WOMAN features 12 female activists from across Australia’s states and territories who fought for suffrage and inclusion.
“I spent a few months just reading, reading, reading and looking online. In the end, because there were so many wonderful women, I had to rein it in a bit,” Alison says.
The women represent a broader movement fighting for “small country towns, regional settlements, capital cities” in Australia and across the world, she says.
The artist, who lives at Mongarlowe in NSW, worked with the Enlighten Festival team to translate her prints to the new medium.
“I’ve never done anything like that before in my life, so that was quite scary at times but also an exciting challenge to have this enormous facade [of Parliament House],” she says.
“I couldn’t imagine what the work was going to look like, and also [how to] make it engaging and have some movement and change within it.
“Normally I work with static, two-dimensional images.”
Artist Alison Alder turned to the library at Parliament House as she researched the 12 inspirational women. Photo: DPS/AUSPIC.
An opportunity to join the creative minds behind Enlighten Festival proved significant for Alison.
“It’s quite an honour, really, to be invited to do that and have people trust my work,” she says.
“[The Enlighten Festival] is just a different aspect of our cultural life and it’s a real privilege to be part of it.”
Alison says similarities exist between today and the world of her featured activists of yesteryear.
“We’re still struggling with some of the issues today, like access to affordable childcare, violence against women, gender pay equality,” she says.
“The more you know about where we have come from and what has happened in the past can really help inform our attitudes to our current social, political and home lives.”
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander visitors are advised the exhibition contains the names and images of people who have died.
The I AM A NEW WOMAN exhibition is open until 10 March, free entry. More information on other Enlighten Festival events and exhibitions can be found online.
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