Photographer Pia Johnson on Re-Orient

In this vdieo acclaimed Chinese-Italian Australian photographer Pia Johnson talks about her new project at the Immigration Museum in which she re-orients herself in a beautiful series of self-portraits that encourage trans-cultural artists to seek out the places that once, by design, made their ancestors 'not feel welcome'.

Pia uses the 19th century Customs House – where new arrivals had their baggage and papers checked and where the infamous Dictation Test was administered – as a site-specific location to explore how we understand our collective transnational communities and histories. She examines the rich and emotional territory of identity, and questions how site and place can shift our sense of belonging across time.

Pia Johnson
Pia Johnson is a photographer, visual artist, curator and lecturer, who has exhibited across Australia and internationally, and is collected in private and public collections including the National Gallery of Victoria. Her work has been a finalist in many photography awards including the National Photographic Portrait Prize, Olive Cotton Award, Bowness Photography Prize, Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize, Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award among others.

Pia holds a Bachelor of Creative Arts from University of Melbourne and has a Doctorate in Fine Arts from RMIT University.

Re-Orient: Reclaiming Spaces, Redefining Stories is supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria.

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