Vivienne Binns

Vivienne Binns is a pioneer of feminist, collaborative and community-based practice in Australia. Born in 1940 in Wyong, New South Wales, she attended East Sydney Technical College between 1958 and 1962 where her teachers included Dorothy Thornhill, John Olsen, Godfrey Miller and John Passmore. In 1962 Binns encountered the work of Mike Brown and the Imitation Realists at Rudy Komon Gallery. Thereafter she and Brown developed a close relationship through their shared interest in art produced outside of established schools and systems.

Binns’ first exhibition, held on Gadigal land/Sydney at Watters Gallery in 1967, was widely criticised for its provocative and sexually explicit imagery. Even the artist Grace Cowley wrote a letter of complaint to the gallery. Among the works exhibited were Suggon, Vag dens and Phallic monument, all of which were later acquired for the National Gallery of Australia collection between 1977 and 1993.

Binns abandoned painting immediately after the Watters exhibition. She embarked on a range of ephemeral, cross-disciplinary and collaborative projects that precipitated her role as a leading figure in the development of community-based practices in Australia. Her career is characterised by a succession of firsts, including the founding of the Sydney chapter of the Women’s Art Movement in 1974, and her participation in An exhibition of homosexual and lesbian artists at Watters Gallery in 1978, the earliest undertaking of its kind in Australia.

Binns’ landmark work, Mothers’ memories, others’ memories, acquired for the National Gallery’s collection in 1981, involved collaborating with women at the University of New South Wales and Blacktown to record matrilineal histories at a time when women’s experiences were seldom valued or documented. Her subsequent work, Tower of Babel, continued her collaborative, feminist and community-based approach to production. Made from 1989 (the work is ongoing) each participant is given a box to fill in any way they choose, effectively documenting their distinct visual language. While largely comprising the art of others, Tower of Babel also forms a personal mythology of Binns herself. Its contributors include those who have influenced her practice such as teachers and mentors Muriel Shaw and Mike Brown; friends and close colleagues like the artists Ruth Waller, Bonita Ely and Eugene Carchesio; and casual acquaintances encountered throughout her career.

Binns returned to painting in the 1980s but remained deeply involved with community projects. Over the following years, she worked as an educator, teaching painting, drawing and art theory at Sydney University, Charles Sturt University (Albury), and The Australian National University. She developed a reputation as a generous mentor to artists including Geoff Newton, Dionisia Salas, Trevelyan Clay and Charlie Sofo. In 1983 Binns was awarded the Order of Australia Medal for Services to Art and Craft. In 1985 she was given the Ros Bower Memorial Award for visionary contribution to community arts.

Vivienne Binns’ most recent work in painting and assemblage is an extension of her prior community and feminist practice. Her ongoing love and interest in found materials and domestic patterns are a means with which to cajole life into art. Now in her 80s, she continues to live and work in Kamberri/Canberra.