Above: 'Ladies camera club,' (detail) gum bichromate prints from found glass plates and auto-text, reproduced in ‘Gum printing’ by Christina Z. Anderson 2017 and exhibited in 'Creatures from the black lagoon' curated by Koulla Roussos at Mayfair Gallery, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia.

Hi, my name is Michelle and I'm a photo-media artist and writer based in Naarm, Melbourne. I need additional funds to cover the expense of research and making time and residency rental costs in nipaluna (Hobart) for an exhibition of expanded photography in 2025.

The budget for this residency includes: Salamanca Arts Centre facilities - $2,600, living expenses at $50 a day - $1,400, materials, making and processing - $300+, travel and entries - $250, airfares - $400 and my rent, bills and living expenses in Naarm roll on / pile up while I take time off (I’m self employed so no annual leave for me) while I’m away. It’s an expensive undertaking and no time for grants … but I think the exhibition outcome in nipaluna (Hobart) in 2025 will be worth it.

**Update, so far just over $1500 has been donated which has enabled me to book a flight to nipaluna, purchase art materials and supplies, subscribe to Art Galleria and start documenting my work professionally and update my website, to purchase archival materials to store my work in a good archival way, and to enrol in watercolour classes to test papers and pigments that I will be using in Lutrawita (Tasmania). Thanks so much, especially to fellow artists who also struggle along financially **

More information:

I have been selected for an artist-in-residence through the Salamanca Arts Centre in Hobart for October 2025 and I need support to cover the costs.

I have an opportunity to develop a new body of work for exhibition in 2025 and the theme is women possessed, women as possessions, and freeing women. Through excavation, connection, interpretation, disruption. Maybe even justice?

Any amount or type of support makes a positive difference; please copy and pass through your networks. Especially anti-carceral or social justice for women folks as I will be researching places of women’s resistance and survival. Or people interested in contemporary photography and expanded and experimental practices.

About: 'From the blanket bog,' anthotype, detail

Please support me to cover travel, living, and residency expenses such as studio rent, materials, equipment, packing and freight as I base my research and site specific making in nipaluna (Hobart), the Cascades Female Factory, sites of women's incarceration and other places of women's resistance to power in Lutruwita (Tasmania). Women are being in prisoned and incarcerated in increasing rates globally, including in Australia, and in Tasmania as a continuation of unjust practices that began during the transportation period.

in a diorama at the Boranic Gardens, nipaluna (Hobart) 2021

I plan to develop an exhibition of images and text for exhibition in 2025 along with work developed on the unceded sovereign lands of the Wurundjeri people, Naarm (Melbourne) and on Dja Dja Wurrung Country (Central Victoria) and hopefully extend overseas to connected sites in 2025.

'Swamp bloodwood,' detail, cyanotype hand made print

My project is to research and explore sites, not through colonial 'discovery' approaches, but as a ghostly feminist, haunting places to centre stories of women from the past and now who are buried by injustice, mostly invisible and misunderstood, criminalised and set apart.

I will use eco-friendly and environmentally sound art making practices based on photographic processes across the history of photography, especially those invented or expanded by women photographers.

My tiny ‘studio’ space by the window in Naarm (Melbourne) 2024

In addition to making photos, I will be using the 'squeezing' archaeological practice of taking impressions from surfaces such as stone work. This will be the first time to 'squeeze' after being introduced to the process by an artist friend while they were in residence at the British School in Rome this year.

Corkboard of ideas and mediums merging and starting to make sense, 2024

You will also be making an essential contribution to learning epigraphic squeezing and developing my practice too.

Remember:

Any amount ($10 and upwards) or type of support (pass through your networks in social media, memberships or Linked In) will be greatly appreciated.

www.michelleculpitt.com

@michelleculpitt

Public program at 'Dark reactions,' exhibition, Nomad Arts, Darwin

Above: 'Ladies camera club,' gum bichromate prints from found glass plates and auto-text, reproduced in "Gum printing" by Christina Z. Anderson 2017 and exhibited in 'Creatures from the black lagoon' curated by Koulla Roussos at Mayfair Gallery, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia

'Haunt - wall at the Cascades Female Factory, nipuluna (Hobart),' detail, platinum palladium print, 2022

No raffles, sweepstakes, giveaways, or returns on investment are offered in exchange for any donations made to this GoFundMe.