Stigma Research Laboratory (SRL) Catalogue

Abstract

Challenging neighbourhood stigma is really about advancing social justice. For a long time now, social justice has been approximately as fashionable as an orange skivvy left over from the 1970s. Recently it’s been revived and rebadged under some now-sounding umbrellas like social inclusion and the community services industry - these labels being ‘better and nicer’, as Tasmanian-based cultural doyen Leo Schofield might say. Whatever it takes, perhaps, to get the lightbulb to want to turn. The Stigma Research Laboratory (SRL) illuminates this space from a different angle. Playful and provocative, intelligent and elegant, this exhibition is the product of an experimental collaboration between Tasmanian artists John Vella, Philippa Steele and Scot Cotterell, working with the Housing and Community Research Unit and the Tasmanian School of Art at the University of Tasmania, Contemporary Art Spaces Tasmania and the Moonah Arts Centre. SRL brings together contemporary art, academics and audiences - and shakes them all up. In the process, it shakes out some challenging questions about how and why we let our postcodes define us.