The Australian National University's new head of sculpture hopes to impress upon her students their social responsibility as artists - and perhaps take them to Europe, too.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Alex Martinis Roe has taken up the role in the School of Art and Design after about a decade working in Germany. The position "looked like a really good opportunity" to Martinis Roe, whose research and work looks partly at Australian feminist history.
"I just made a short film last year, a video installation, on a specific series of events and I realised I wanted to work on it more so I thought 'I've really got to be in Australia a bit more to do that'," she said.
Martinis Roe said the opportunity to share her approach to exploring social and political issues through art had also appealed.
"I was very interested in this position because I felt it had the scope to really rework disciplines and I think that's one of the key ways to work on these embedded issues," she said.
"I'm interested in getting my students to think about their responsibility in that regard and what kind of society they want to contribute towards producing through their work.
"That doesn't mean it has to be explicit like a newspaper article, but it does mean they have to think about the effect of their aesthetics."
Martinis Roe will aim to foster a closer relationship between the ANU and the European art world during her tenure.
"Eventually I'd like to be able to take my students to Europe and involve them in the discourses and communities I have access to," she said.
"It'll be interesting I guess to see how can I forge a closer connection with Canberra and Berlin, which is where I come from."
ANU School of Art and Design head Denise Ferris said Martinis Roe's had "generated a buzz around the school".
"This appointment is a statement about the future direction of the school and the value of transdisciplinary practice and research-led teaching," Ferris said.
