What can art convey that words alone cannot?

For many women activists working on the frontlines of the struggle for gender equality, there is an acute awareness that women’s rights are far from fully realized. Gender gaps may never fully close. Legal systems—across both wealthy and poorer nations—continue to underserve women. Discrimination is often embedded in law, either explicitly in its language or implicitly in how the law is lived.

But it need not be this way. This exhibition invites viewers to reconceptualise life for women if we rewrote the rules to reflect women’s lives, needs and experiences. It’s a call to build legal systems that serve all women—not just a privileged few.

Through a dynamic display of artistic mediums, including canvas, ceramic, collage and film, artists from across Australia offer their interpretation of themes from the book Rewriting the Rules: Gender-Responsive Lawmaking for the Twenty-First Century.  Each artists offers their take on how ‘the Master’s tools’ can be deployed differently.

Navigate across women’s worlds of work and home, from spaces and places of violence to freedom, in all corners of the globe and the virtual world. Be challenged to think beyond a linear pathway: sometimes equality for women means de-gendering our norms and expectations.

As you step inside, ask yourself: if you could rewrite the rules, what would they look like?