Videos
Videos and Media
She Matters - Making The Lost Petition, 2021-2022
By Dans Bain and Sherele Moody
Wurundjeri Country
Video 6min 26sec
Video edited by Mike Russo
Interviews undertaken by Sherele Moody
Content Warning: This project mentions violence against women and children. This project also contains the names of some Indigenous women and children lost to male violence.
Video contains the voices of Lee Little, John Herron, Amani Haydar and Sonia Holland who have lost loved ones to violence and time-lapse footage of the making of The Lost Petition from 2021-2022.
The Lost Petition, 2021
By Dans Bain
‘The Lost Petition’ is an ongoing artwork that lists women and children who have lost their lives to male violence in Australia from 2008. This work is 30 metres and proceeds to grow in length as women and children’s lives continue to be lost to male violence.
The Lost Petition’ is a clear call to our Federal Government and to all Australians to change the culture. These women and children can no longer vote, they have unjustly lost their right for representation and to have their voices heard by our Government. Their right to suffrage, that was fought for and won by brave women, did not protect them from male violence.
Behind every name there was once a living, breathing women or child, someone whose death is entirely preventable, ‘The Lost Petition’ brings visibility and is a call to action to make radical and systematic change.
This work is underpinned by the research by Sherele Moody of The Red Heart Campaign and the Australian Femicide and Child Death Map. https://australianfemicidewatch.org/
The Lost Petition at Parliament of Australia, 2022
Parliament House, Ngunnawal Country, Canberra
Video 4min 23sec
Video edited by Mike Russo
Content Warning: This project mentions violence against women and children. This project also contains the names of some Indigenous women and children lost to male violence.
Dans Bain's Instagram live broadcast from Parliament of Australia, March 28, 2022 Radio interview ABC Canberra Breakfast with Lish Fejer, March 29, 2022.
The Lost Petition, 2021
By Dans Bain
‘The Lost Petition’ is an ongoing artwork that lists women and children who have lost their lives to male violence in Australia from 2008. This work is 30 metres and proceeds to grow in length as women and children’s lives continue to be lost to male violence.
‘The Lost Petition’ is a clear call to our Federal Government and to all Australians to change the culture. These women and children can no longer vote, they have unjustly lost their right for representation and to have their voices heard by our Government. Their right to suffrage, that was fought for and won by brave women, did not protect them from male violence.
Behind every name there was once a living, breathing women or child, someone whose death is entirely preventable, ‘The Lost Petition’ brings visibility and is a call to action to make radical and systematic change.
This work is underpinned by the research by Sherele Moody of The Red Heart Campaign and the Australian Femicide and Child Death Map. https://australianfemicidewatch.org/
Aerial Intersection, 2022
Burston Reserve, Wurundjeri Country, Melbourne
Video 3min 46sec
Drone footage by Mitch Blunt (Arbee Aerials)
Video edited and music by Mike Russo
Date: March 24, 2022
Content Warning: This project mentions violence against women and children. This project also contains the names of some Indigenous women and children lost to male violence.
Artist Statement – On numerous occasions, on my way into Melbourne, I would pass Great Petition in Burston Reserve. Located behind Parliament House, it references the ‘Women’s Suffrage Petition’ from 1891, which contains almost 30,000 signatures demanding the right for women to vote in the colony of Victoria.
The Lost Petition list of lost women and children commences in the year 2008, the same year that the Great Petition by Susan Hewitt and Penelope Lee was created The Lost Petition was first installed on a rainy International Women’s Day, 8th March 2021, at Great Petition in Burston Reserve, Melbourne. At 30 metres long, the work runs the length of the path that intersects the sculpture.
The Lost Petition, 2021
By Dans Bain
‘The Lost Petition’ is an ongoing artwork that lists women and children who have lost their lives to male violence in Australia from 2008. This work is 30 metres and proceeds to grow in length as women and children’s lives continue to be lost to male violence.
‘The Lost Petition’ is a clear call to our Federal Government and to all Australians to change the culture. These women and children can no longer vote, they have unjustly lost their right for representation and to have their voices heard by our Government. Their right to suffrage, that was fought for and won by brave women, did not protect them from male violence.
Behind every name there was once a living, breathing women or child, someone whose death is entirely preventable, ‘The Lost Petition’ brings visibility and is a call to action to make radical and systematic change.
This work is underpinned by the research by Sherele Moody of The Red Heart Campaign and the Australian Femicide and Child Death Map. https://australianfemicidewatch.org/
SHE of Mind and Body
The exhibition SHE has over 20 years of history at the Walker Street Gallery. SHE of mind and body depicted the multilayered and complicated aspects of being a Woman today. It showcased the depth of textiles as a medium and its ability to speak without words. While there was a time, when the medium was considered merely a form of craft, more recent discourse has placed it at the forefront of contemporary art.
Historically, depictions of the female body have held a male gaze and the focus is on male constructed ideals. Ironically, despite some cultural shifts to invert this depiction, the power and ubiquitous nature of social media has created greater anxiety in how ideals are constructed. Particularly, by those who are yet to form their identity, not to mention the hyper-reality rarely being reflective of the real.
2023 Exhibition (7 February - 31 March)
In 2023, the SHE exhibition presented a celebration of ten female textile artists: Danielle (Dans) Bain, Anna Farago, Neroli Henderson, Georgia MacGuire, Chaco Kato, Vonda Keji, Caroline Phillips, Nusra Qureshi, Ema Shin, and Kate V M Sylvester. Read about these amazing artists below.