Roberta Joy Rich

My creative practice takes place on the lands of the Boonwurrung and Wurundjeri Woiwurrung peoples of the Kulin Nation. I pay my respects to their Elders past and present, their ancestors and families, acknowledging their deep and ongoing spiritual connection to Country. I extend my respects to Wathaurong Waddawurrung peoples, whose lands I was birthed and raised upon that have deeply shaped me and my experiences.

I acknowledge Boonwurrung and Wurundjeri custodianship of the lands, waterways and skies that I continue to live, work and benefit from, recognising that sovereignty was never ceded. I come with an intention to deepen my understanding of ancestral pathways as a diasporic being, while sharing, learning and creating on unceded lands (Melbourne, Australia).

I extend this acknowledgement and pay my respects to peer African and Indigenous peoples across the globe viewing this website.

The Fashion Bible

Billboard poster.

Emerging from the wake of global upheaval, Stimulus Package curated by Madé Spencer-Castle, played wryly with the notion of economic stimulus, through the commissioning of 10 public artworks, presented across advertising sites throughout the City of Darebin as part of Fuse Festival 2021.

Engaging with artists to consider the impact of 2020 on the fabric of their existence, Stimulus Package reflected on the ways in which we can come together as communities, to stimulate and support each other through extraordinary times.

Presented on the street and to the public, the works presented in Stimulus Package by Kay Abude, Georgia Banks, Lara Chamas, Anita Cummins, Roberta Joy Rich, Shea Kirk, Sonia Leber and David Chesworth, Louise Meuwissen, Steven Rhall and Tim Woodward, were at once deeply personal yet fiercely political, tender and compelling, humorous but deadly serious. Harnessing the vernacular of advertising, Stimulus Package prompts us to consider, how we can meaningfully engage with one another, feel connected and inspired, and bring people together in a time where we are increasingly apart?

The Fashion Bible, 2010 employed a black marker upon hundreds of pages of a fashion magazine, with the aim of disrupting the bodies typically seen in visual communications, and raise scrutiny to whom occupies such sites. What messages about aspiration and desire in relation to the cultures we exist within do these images perpetuate?

Part of a sustained exploration about issues of identity, representation, and erasure, The Fashion Bible, 2020 is recontextualised to a billboard space, and hopes to create dialogue within the community to acknowledge and reflect upon the spaces they inhabit and who it serves. The decision to exhibit this work created a decade ago, draws attention to time, and the wider spectrum of this in relation to Black communities who long before the creation of this work, continue to fight towards a decolonised future.