Creative Sites of Resistance: imagined futures, by Jody Haines
Creative Sites of Resistance: imagined futures is a new collaborative project by artist-researcher Jody Haines. The social portrait project for women, by women* was created during Jody’s time as an artist-researcher-in-residence at RMIT PlaceLab Brunswick from 17th-28th October.
*female-identifying, trans and non-binary persons
Creative Sites of Resistance recognises a significant and persistent problem in the way that women are visually represented in our public spaces. The differing expectations around gender and appearance are clear when you scroll through social media or watch the news. Consider the example of people in positions of authority and power. A recent Pew Research Centre study found that men appear twice as often as women in news images, with a majority of photos showing exclusively men, and a study of the stock exchange in New Zealand found that men were often pictured in higher positions and encompassed more space within the frame. This dominance also exists behind the lens. Photography is a stubbornly male-dominated field, despite women being early pioneers. So, perhaps the problem can be summarised like this: when it comes to positions of power and authority, we see more men, more of men, and more images by men.
A few seconds from a short film for Creative Sites of Resistance: Imagined Futures,by Jody Haines.
Creative Sites of Resistance aims to shift the current visual narrative through collaborative portraiture. It is a project by women, with women, made for use in public space. The project challenges the typical experience of having your portrait taken, where time can be rushed and the photographer can dominate through giving directions. Even the language of photography – shooting, capturing, and taking – is reconsidered. These forceful, even violent, words are replaced with making to describe a collaborative approach.
Creative Sites of Resistance by Jody Haines, in RMIT PlaceLab Brunswick.
Socially engaged photography can respond to and critique the dominant visual narratives we see across our public spaces.
The portraits for Creatives Sites of Resistance were made during a 2.5 hour session, with multiple cups of tea and plentiful snacks to sustain the conversation and image-making. Together with Jody, the participants explored how they experience resistance and connection and still dream of radical possibilities. Questions raised in the conversations considered gender equality, feminism, and how each woman would like to see themselves in a portrait. There was also opportunity to record reflections, walk in the park, and look at the world (literally) through different colour lenses.
Artist-researcher Jody Haines setting up at RMIT PlaceLab Brunswick.
The language of photography – shooting, capturing and taking – was replaced with making to describe a collaborative approach.
Behind the scenes and the final portraits.
The final portraits were printed with different colour filters to represent personal associations with connection and resistance. A short film of vox pop responses complemented the portraits, with an accompaniment of birdsong and the sounds of creek. Although the outcomes were treasured by the participants, it was the process that made this project meaningful.
The exhibition will be on view in RMIT PlaceLab Brunswick until the week ending 11th November 2022.
If you’re in the neighbourhood, please drop in and have a look!
Creative Sites of Resistance by Jody Haines, in RMIT PlaceLab Brunswick.
Thank you!
Thank you to Jody for sharing your project with RMIT PlaceLab Brunswick and the community. You helped us to reconsider the language and methods of photography, and how they help us to connect to each other while resisting dominant cultural narratives.
A big thank you to the women who joined Jody to make a collaborative portrait – without you, this project was not possible.