You Are Here: Melbourne Memory-scapes

Exhibition, curator talk and city walking tour

Join curator Angela Bailey for a guided viewing of the City Gallery exhibition 'You Are Here: Melbourne Memory-scapes', followed by a queer history walk around the nearby city streets.

'You Are Here' engages with a collection of black-and-white aerial photographs of Melbourne/Naarm from the 1960s. Originally used in mapping and surveying, in this context these photographs invite the viewer to explore the nuances of memory, place and connection, to locate themselves and establish their sense of belonging. We trace our memories to find ourselves here.

The striking photographs are in conversation with other items from the City of Melbourne Art and Heritage Collection. Most notably, they are in happy tension with commissioned text works by Wergaia/Wemba poet Susie Anderson. Her words extend the exhibition’s consideration of the photographs as a visual technology that evokes memory traces and mental maps, delineating individual and collective stories of connection. Her words offer a counterpoint to the stark boundaries and hard structures that are imposed upon the landscape and evident in the photographs.

Angela Bailey is a curator, photographer and creative producer. Her practice actively explores and interprets our rich and diverse histories and cultures by creating exhibitions, discourse and public programs of engagement. She has lectured and tutored in photography and her work is held in numerous public collections. Angela has curated exhibitions at galleries and museums across Australia, most recently at State Library Victoria. She has postgraduate degrees in fine arts and art curatorship and is vice president of the Australian Queer Archives.