Singularly Contemporary: Becoming PICA | Boorloo Heritage Festival
Curated by Mia Palmer-VerevisPerth Institute of Contemporary Arts | April 5 & 6, 2025
Delving into PICA’s 35-year archive, Mia Palmer-Verevis (Hatched Curatorial Associate, 2025-26) presents a selection of program ephemera from a critical year in PICA’s evolution – 1989. Polishing off a decade of ambition and collectivising, 1989 was PICA’s first complete year of ambitious and diverse programming – a year additionally significant due to the appointment of PICA’s inaugural director, Noel Sheridan.
Currently situated on Goologoolup, a system of fresh lakes and wetlands across Northbridge, PICA emerged out of the Fremantle-based art collective Praxis, eventually finding a home in the Old Perth Boys School, situated in the heart of the then-developing Perth Cultural Centre. Propelled by an unwavering vision for a new contemporary art institute – inspired by concurrent activity in the US and UK – the early conceptions of PICA set out to transform contemporary art in Western Australia. PICA’s formation throughout the mid-1980s, documented through numerous concept proposals and rationales, was tethered to three central ambitions. Namely, an emphasis on concept and process, a commitment to cross-cultural programming, and to serve as a counterpoint to conservative and mainstream ideologies.
The material in this exhibition reveals a period of creative and critical mobilisation within Western Australia’s arts landscape, driven by a collective investment in global contemporary movements and experimental practice, alongside the motivation to introduce an exchange of cultural dialogues to the geographical isolation of Perth. These founding values remain engrained in the culture of PICA today and many of the programs initiated during this period endure as critical parts of PICA’s unique contribution to the arts.
This exhibition took place on Whadjuk Noongar boodjar. Always was, always will be Aboriginal land.