Elsie (and Minnie), 52min, single-channel video, Zanny Begg, 2025.
When we wrote our aims and objectives we felt it important to stress that we as a collective see every woman who comes here as having her own agency in the world and by that we mean that we see every woman as responsible for their own decisions, she hasn’t been able to be that before, but from now on she is a person who is responsible for her own decisions. What we aim to do is to give people back to themselves, Elsie volunteer, 1975.
Named after the two homes occupied by the first Australian refuge to offer 24-hour shelter for women and children escaping domestic violence, Elsie (and Minnie) reflects upon the origins of the women’s refuge movement in Australia and the state of gendered violence today.
The exhibition features two new works by Zanny Begg: the film Elsie (and Minnie) and a three-channel video installation, The Yellow Wallpaper. A concurrent display at UTS Library tracks a chronology of key moments in the establishment of Elsie and showcases important archival material related to the Australian Women’s Liberation Movement.
The exhibition is open to the public from 17 June until 5 September 2025.
Exhibition review in Inner City Voice, issue 148, p24-25, 2025.
Elsie (and Minnie)
52mins, single-channel installation, 2025
Elsie was the first Women’s Refuge in Australia (and the first shelter in the world to use the term “refuge”) established by squatting an abandoned house called Elsie, and its neighbour Minnie, in Sydney in 1974.
The term domestic violence had only been first used to describe intimate partner violence six months earlier, prior to this women trying to escape domestic violence had nowhere to go, and no way to describe what they were experiencing.
The establishment of Elsie had a profound impact on Australian, and global, politics. On the one hand, Elsie spearheaded a raft of changes in government legislation, with over 160 refuges launched within the next few years, and domestic violence refuges eventually becoming official government policy, and a feminist career. On the other, the refuge created an intense experiment in lived politics as white, middle-class, First Nations and working-class women crammed into two tiny houses to learn how to live together, an experience which challenged feminism on a profound level. Elsie was more than a political movement, it was a cultural phenomenon, inhabitants sought to remake all aspects of their lives including how they were seen and represented on film.
The Yellow Wallpaper
7:30min, three-channel video installation, 2025
Six women who responded to an
open call to collaborate with the artist,
share their personal experiences and
responses to domestic violence, set
against a backdrop of hand-drawn
yellow wallpaper. There is no narration,
no testimony. In a field where
disclosure is often expected as the
price of recognition, this choice is
deliberate and effective.Review, Inner City Voice
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilmore, first published in 1892, is considered one of the earliest descriptions of coercive control. It describes the mental deterioration of a young mother prescribed the “rest cure” for postnatal depression. The text uses speculative fiction to explore themes of control, violence, isolation, and power within a domestic setting framed by oppressive yellow wallpaper.
Hand drawn yellow wallpaper that documents the six key stages of coercive control forms a backdrop to performances by a group of women who responded to a callout to work with the artist in exploring personal responses to domestic violence.
This project was generously supported by VACS Major Commissioning Projects (Individuals and Groups) grant from Creative Australia.
Elsie (and Minnie) is a UTS Gallery & Art Collection commission, presented in partnership with UTS Library, UTS Centre for Social Justice and Inclusion, UTS Business School, and UTS Media Lab.