Rewind Forward exhibition

Five Melbourne artists have produced fascinating and beautiful work inspired by their research into the state government’s archive. The unique pieces are on display in the exhibition Rewind Forward running from late May until November at the Victorian Archive Centre Gallery in North Melbourne. 

The host of the program, Public Record Office Victoria (PROV) invited comic Sam Wallman, visual artist Shannon Slee, graphic designer Susan Fitzgerald, creatives Queer-ways and conceptual artist Amil Zile to find inspiration for their creative practice through historic records. There's no shortage to choose from, PROV manages the largest paper archive repository in Victoria; located in a quiet part of North Melbourne.

A growing number of artists in Australia are turning to archives for inspiration. The beauty of cursive handwriting and the hard truths that sometimes lie between the pages of paper archives are prompting visual and conceptual artists to deliver critical and creative works inspired by what they uncover. 

“The artists 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 staring back at them, has inspired some thought-provoking work.” - Engagement Manager, Kate Follington. 
 

TEXTILE MEMORIAL - Shannon Slee

One of the pieces on display, from textile artist Shannon Slee, is a large piece of silk with 950 women’s names sewn onto the fabric as a memorial to women who died of an illegal 'backyard' abortion up until 1975 and whose inquest files are preserved in the repository.

“The extraordinary number of deaths recorded in the inquest files, highlights the historical violence on women’s bodies due to state laws that prohibited access to safe reproductive health care. Now, more than ever, we need to remind people of that,” said Slee of her research. 
 

The scale of inquests conducted because of illegal abortions has only recently been understood, following PROV's large-scale indexing project which included transcription of name, date and cause of death across inquest records. The original inquest files are on display in the gallery for visitors to read alongside Slee’s work. 

One of the women’s names sewn on Slee’s artwork is Carolyn Mary Jamieson. In 1968, Carolyn was 21 and worked in a chemist. When she realised, she was pregnant, her boyfriend, Johnny, secured the same doctor that delivered him as a baby, Dr Flynn. The 70-year-old doctor was unable to engage an anaesthetist and without a full medical history administered an incorrect dose of Pentothal. Carolyn died quickly and was unable to be resuscitated. 

Carolyn’s death prompted Melbourne advocates Dr Bertram Wainer and the Abortion Law Reform Association to increase the intensity of their campaign to demand changes to reproductive rights for women, and enable trained doctors to administer safe abortions without risk of criminal charges.  The first major step forward occurred in 1969 with the Menhennit Ruling. 

Assisting Automation - Sam Wallman

Celebrated political comic, Sam Wallman, known for championing the working class, found inspiration in the vast collection of black and white photographs which document a century of maritime labour at the Melbourne docks. The photographs capture wharfie's perilous work building wharves and hoisting cargo, inspiring a series of new illustrations sharing the history of maritime work before automation took over. 

"The archives are a collective property, a kind of commons, and I am grateful to have an excuse to sniff around them. Vijay Prashad once said that 'You go to the past not as a destination but as a resource. This is why we go back to the past, to learn in defeat. In the ruins. To learn what shines, like a magpie. That is what a historian should be, a magpie in the ruins'," said Wallman of the research experience.

The port is quite often the backdrop of Wallman’s illustrations, he sketches while working part time at Webb Dock. His intimate knowledge of the setting is evident in his work as he tries to capture the important contribution of maritime workers to the City of Melbourne. 

“I like to highlight the lived experience of working-class people from diverse backgrounds, people often locked out of ‘capital-H history’, their workplaces, and how these forces have shaped one another." 

Wallman says this series makes pointed comment at the increasing automation of the port “The wharves have changed immeasurably since the maritime industry began moving cargo in shipping containers. These drawings are meditations on some of the changes that have taken place.“
 

Return Fare - Susan Fitzgerald 

The history of train and tram tickets caught the eye of artist Susan Fitzgerald, an illustrator and passionate typographer, who playfully celebrates the lost trade of the printing industry and once hand drawn iconography which adorned tickets.

Fitzgerald spent a lot of time researching the various changes in style of transport tickets 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 just how much is in there.” 

The public record collection 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. 

Fitzgerald was also inspired by an album of high-quality photographs of the Railway Printing Works dated from 1913-1969. 

Victorian Vagrants - Queer-ways

Historical cases of punishment for gender non-conforming presentation found in prison registers, for ‘impersonation’, as it was often described, inspired artistic collaborators Queer-ways to recreate the offenders fashion choices for the gallery. LUCIANO says the prison registers are an important record of queer history in Melbourne. 

"As two queer people with gender non-conforming presentations, we both connect to this history and are driven to amplify the stories of the gender non-conforming people before us, to pay respect and ensure their stories are maintained for posterity." 

The registers are preserved by Public Record Office Victoria, and include details of the clothing worn by individuals during their arrest and often include their mugshot. The Australian Queer Archives consider the records to be some of the most important held within public collections for queer related history. 

Charges for such behaviour were written as ‘offensive’, and the artworks by Queer-ways display the stories of these trailblazers by recreating their choice of clothing, and incorporating copies of the original police registers into the exhibit.

Edward De Lacey Evans and Roy Bellamy are two of the four people whose stories are shared. Edward De Lacy arrived in Melbourne in 1856 aboard the Ocean Monarch and were known on board as Ellen Tremaye, but upon disembarking lived as Edward, becoming one of Australia’s first documented transgender people. Their biological sex was revealed at the Kew Asylum in 1879 sparking a media storm, and the 1880 book The Man-Woman.

Roy Bellamy was known by many pseudonyms, including Minnie McKenzie when wearing women’s clothing. Roy had been in and out of Pentridge Prison five times between 1935 and 1942 and was warned by the local constable against wearing women’s clothes in public leading to an eventual arrest in Parkville.

The exhibition demonstrates the power of artists to share under-explored histories with the public in new and unexpected ways. 

Rewind Forward group exhibition runs from the 29th of May 2025 until November 30 2025 at the VAC Gallery in North Melbourne, at The Victorian Archives Centre. Free and open Monday to Friday and every second and last Saturday.