By Kate Follington
Local Footscray graphic designer and artist Susan Fitzgerald has launched a new series of typography inspired artworks following her time as a Creative in Residence at the Victorian Archives Centre.
The group exhibition Rewind Forward is on display in their lobby gallery and features her work which combines elements of Melbourne’s historic train and tram ticket designs.
“My project looked at Melbourne transport tickets and iconography over time. They’re such a big part of our lives and then they’re just thrown away. A lot of my time as a creative in residence has been getting my head around researching the archive and how much is in there.”
The Public Record Office repository is the archive of state and local Governments in Victoria. Based in North Melbourne, it is the largest paper archive in the state and is well known by transport enthusiasts for its unending memorabilia related to transport history. Within its vast photographic collection of train and tram activity Fitzgerald rummaged through archival boxes and found historic typography on ticket designs, correspondence files and photos of train station billboards.
“An exciting find was in one of the boxes I thought was full of images of tram accidents, I found an original hand painted design of a ticket.”
The railway printing works that were based in North Melbourne were a significant industry. Fitzgerald uncovered an album of high-quality photographs of the huge printing presses and large industrial working spaces dated from 1913-1969, filled with workers in formal attire, their white shirt sleeves rolled up, dedicated to printing tickets.
The lost trade of cursive handwriting and the significance of paper archives as repositories for this once mandatory artform is also an alluring element for artists and designers.
“The artists have loved touching and feeling history in a way that is often forgotten in our screen dominated lives. The tactile nature of the paper records, with the ink of handwriting still visible and the intimate stories of Victorian people’s lives staring back at them, has inspired some thought-provoking work,” says exhibition coordinator Natasha Cantwell.
Alongside Fitzgerald four other artists are featured in the exhibition, and their research delved into the darker truths preserved within the government collection.
Shannon Slee’s textile memorial to 950 women, was created in response to the large number of coronial inquests of unlawful backyard abortions. Sam Wallman’s comic illustrations pay homage to Melbourne dock workers, and as a wharfie himself, he wanted to draw attention to the toil of maritime workers, often unrecognised for their significant contribution to the Melbourne economy, particularly relevant against a rapidly automated industry.
Queer-ways artists George Keats and LUCIANO have drawn attention to the historic prison registers which contain records of people arrested for wearing gender non-conforming clothing. Once called ‘impersonating’ or ‘masquerading’ the artists have recreated those outfits for the exhibition alongside copies of the original mugshots. The prison registers are a significant record of queer history in Victoria dating back to the 1800s.
Rewind Forward delivers beautiful and thought-provoking work celebrating cursive handwriting and hard truths.
Rewind Forward is free and open now until November at the Victorian Archives Centre Gallery on Shiel Street, North Melbourne. Open Monday to Friday, and every second and last Saturday. Go to prov.vic.gov.au for details
