Zanny Begg: These Stories Will be Different

If you think history is on your side, let me tell you women did not write these books. If they did, the stories would be different. – Christine de Pizan

Zanny Begg is an Australian artist and filmmaker interested in contested histories. ‘These Stories Will Be Different’ brings together three of the artist's most significant video installations, including The City of Ladies (with Elise McLeod) 2017, The Beehive 2018, and Stories of Kannagi 2019. Between them, these works reimagine a medieval feminist utopia, probe the unsolved murder of a high-profile anti-gentrification campaigner and explore the connections between love, loss, and language in diasporic communities. 

Begg’s videos tell stories, but they also challenge the politics of storytelling itself. Drawing on ancient literary traditions, non-linear timeframes, and computer-generated randomisation, Begg invites you to see the world differently: “All my work has been about ways of living and inhabiting the world … how we can live in the world differently. I am not sure if art alone can create a different world – but it can help us see how one could come into existence and the ways in which we can contribute to this process.”

A UNSW Galleries and Museums & Galleries of NSW touring exhibition. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body.

 

Publication: The Beehive

To coincide with the exhibition tour, UNSW Galleries has published a new book on Zanny Begg's project exploring the unsolved murder of Sydney anti-development campaigner and glamorous style icon Juanita Nielsen in 1975.

The 160-page book designed by Suzanne Boccalatte brings together new writing by Zanny Begg, alongside contributions from curator Pedro de Almeida (Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney), visual culture theorist Nicholas Mirzoeff (NYU Steinhardt, New York), humanities academic Christopher Peterson (University of Western Sydney), and philosopher Oxana Timofeeva (European University, St. Petersburg). It includes interviews with independent filmmaker Pat Fiske, performer Kilia Tipa and Indigenous leader Bronwyn Penrith, and reflections by sex worker rights activist Julie Bates, prominent activist and politician Meredith Burgmann, burlesque performer Imogen Kelly, conceptual artist Ian Milliss and business partner, friend and lover of Juanita, David Farrell.

BUY 

Redland Art Gallery, QLD
30 January – 13 March 2022

Shoalhaven Regional Gallery, NSW
2 April – 28 May 2022

Devonport Regional Gallery, TAS
4 June – 10 July 2022

Wagga Wagga Art Gallery, NSW
23 July – 18 September 2022

Plimsoll Gallery, University of Tasmania, TAS
10 December 2022 – 29 January 2023

Tamworth Regional Gallery, NSW
11 February – 2 April 2023

Swan Hill Regional Gallery, VIC
15 April – 11 June 2023

Glasshouse, Port Macquarie, NSW
24 June – 30 July 2023

Artspace Mackay, QLD
19 August –  12 November 2023

Goldfields Art Centre, WA
24 November 2023 – 2 February 2024

Education Kit

Banner: Zanny Begg, 'Stories of Kannagi' 2019. Single-channel digital video. Image courtesy of the artist, Bulli