In conversation

Tense Past: Julie Gough with Greg Lehman and Mary Knights

“I come from a long line of people who by default mistrust the status quo.“  – Julie Gough

First published in 2021, Tense Past by pre-eminent contemporary artist Julie Gough spectacularly sold out within three months of its release. Now in 2023, Outside the Box / Earth Arts Rights has partnered with Julie on a reprint of this powerful, award-winning publication. To celebrate this reprint, Julie will be joined by book contributors Greg Lehman and Dr Mark Knights to discuss works ongoing moral narrative and historical scholarship.

Tense Past documents Julie Gough’s major survey exhibition held at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in 2019. This epic exhibition, curated by Dr Knights, showcased 25 years of Julie’s art practice, and reunited more than 30 artworks from collections across Australia.

Resonant historic artworks and objects were also selected by Gough to collectively critique, alongside her works, the colonisation of Tasmania and the aftermath-impacts on First People and colonists.

As well as being an impeccably designed book, this publication was also conceived as a work of art, and an operational intervention into libraries. Designed to sit amidst and disrupt undisputed mainstream histories, it hides in plain sight.

Julie Gough is one of Australia’s pre-eminent contemporary artists. Her people are Trawlwoolway and her traditional maternal country is Tebrikunna, in far north east lutruwita/Tasmania. She has held 28 solo exhibitions, and her work is held in many private and public collections nationally and internationally. Gough’s works of art explore and expose erased and forgotten histories, challenging the established colonial narratives perpetuated as Australia’s national story and forcing us to re-evaluate the veracity of the nation state.

Join Julie, Greg and Mary for this important discussion at the Afterword Café. You can purchase tickets below.