Migration + Mobility + Art
Migration + Mobility + Art is an interdisciplinary research area within CAST, which examines various forms of migration and their critical impacts, and the challenges surrounding the complexities of mobility, with a particular focus on the Asia-Pacific region, in the context of creative practices.Led by Dr Kristen Sharp, Dr Tammy Hulbert and Pia Johnson, this initiative brings together diverse researchers, including artists, curators, designers, writers and educators toshare and develop ideas, initiatives, collaboration projects, exhibitions and publication around interrelated issues of diversity, nationalism, citizenship, borders, transnationalism, multiculturalism, diasporas, globalisation and belonging.
As a research area, we want to examine how creative and cultural practices can reimagine the social, political, environmental and ethical issues of mobility and migration in a globalising society.
Research Projects
Research Theme Leaders
Pia Johnson
Pia Johnson is a photographer and visual artist, whose practice emerged out of concern with issues of cultural identity and difference, stemming from her mixed background of Chinese Italian-Australian descent. These themes have underpinned her interest in memory, cultural spaces and performance, to investigate notions of transcultural identity, belonging and otherness through photography. Her current research is interested in reading and performing Eurasian ethnicities, intersections with gender, and the commercial practice of photographing live performance.
Pia has exhibited throughout Australia, USA, China, Japan and Mexico. She has been a finalist in many photography awards including the Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize, Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award, PCP’s Iris Award, Maggie Diaz Photography Prize for Women, Martin Kantor Photographic Portrait Prize. Her work is collected in private and public collections including the National Gallery of Victoria. Recent commission and exhibition highlights include solo exhibitions including upcoming show Relative (2021) at Bundoora Homestead, Cusp (2019) at Stockroom, She that came before me (2018) at Manningham Art Gallery, group exhibitions A Family Album (2020) at Town Hall Gallery, On the Move: The Dion Family (2019-2020) at Wollongong Art Gallery with 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, All That We Can’t See (2018) national tour, being a finalist in the Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize (2019), her curatorial shows The Family Mantle (2018) and Chinese Whispers and Other Stories (2017), and an artistic residency at National University of Singapore (2018). Pia holds a Bachelor of Creative Arts and Diploma of Modern Languages (Mandarin) from the University of Melbourne, and is currently a PhD (Art) candidate at RMIT University, where she also lecturers within the School of Fine Art.
Dr Tammy Hulbert
Dr Tammy Wong Hulbert is an artist, curator and academic. Her current research engages both her curatorial and artistic interests and focuses on investigating how socially engaged art practices can encourage an inclusive city. Originally she studied Bachelor of Applied Art, ceramics and Art Administration at UNSWAD, Sydney. She has exhibited her work and had curatorial experience in Melbourne, Sydney, Shanghai and Beijing. In Sydney, she was the manager of Newcontemporaries, a non-commercial corporate funded gallery and the manager of exhibitions at Customs House, City of Sydney. Her curatorial interests focus on cross-cultural dialogue between Australian and Chinese contemporary artists through projects such as Gone with the Panda – Zhao Bandi (2004) Meridians: Shanghai (2010) and Lumens Festival: Curating the Ancient City, Suzhou and Melbourne (2012). Her industry experience led to her PhD research on The City as a Curated Space (2012) at RMIT University, focused on proposing an alternative model of exhibition practices, considering the ways urban spaces are curated in global cities. She has also taught contemporary art history in Melbourne and Hong Kong. Tammy is currently a lecturer in the Arts Management program, specialising in curating contemporary art.
Dr Kristen Sharp
Dr Kristen Sharp is a researcher, writer and curator. She is the Coordinator of ART: History + Theory + Cultures and a Senior Lecturer in the School of Art, RMIT University. Her research focuses on contemporary art and urban space, contemporary Asian art, and collaborative art practices in transnational projects. Her publications include Screen Ecologies: Art, Media and the Environment in the Asia-Pacific Region (with L. Hjorth, S. Pink and L. Williams, MIT Press, 2016), Re-imagining the City: Art, globalization and urban spaces (co-edited with E.Grierson, Intellect, 2013) and Sounds of Weather (with P. Samartzis and C. Charles, Musashino Art University, Tokyo, 2016). Kristen was a Chief Investigator on Spatial Dialogues: Public Art and Climate Change an ARC (Australian Research Council) Linkage.
Project based in Melbourne, Shanghai and Tokyo researching public art and social media collaborations responding to climate change.
