julie gough artwork

julie gough

artist in residence 2007

Julie Gough is a visual artist working predominantly in sculpture and installation art. Her art and research practice involves uncovering and re-presenting historical stories as part of an ongoing project that questions and re-evaluates the impact of the past on our present lives. Much of the work refers to her own and her family’s experiences as Tasmanian Aboriginal people and is concerned with developing a visual language to express and engage with conflicting and subsumed histories. A central intention of Gough’s art is to invite a viewer to a closer understanding of our continuing roles in, and proximity to unresolved National stories.

Gough's maternal affiliation is to the Trawlwoolway people whose country ranges across the far north eastern corner of Tasmania that today is largely allocated as pastoral lease, national park and, shortly, a tourist complex at Musselroe Bay. Many of Gough’s family reside today in the Devonport region, though for Gough, the North East, or Tebrikunna, remains her homeland.

Gough is currently taking research leave from her position as a lecturer in Visual Arts at James Cook University Townsville to undertake three fellowships awarded across the fields of visual arts and historical research in 2007 and 2008. Previous employment includes: Curator of Indigenous Art at the National Gallery of Victoria; Lecturer at Riawunna – Centre for Aboriginal Studies at the University of Tasmania; and Interpretation Officer, Aboriginal Culture at the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service.

Julie Gough has undertaken artist residencies in Australia, Mauritius, New York and Paris and was awarded a PhD from the University of Tasmania in 2001 (Transforming Histories: the visual disclosure of contentious pasts, 2001), MFA (University of London, Goldsmith’s College, 1998) BFA 1st Class Honours (University of Tasmania 1994), BVA (Curtin University, 1993) and BA (Prehistory and English Literature, UWA, 1986).