2025 Conference | Unruly Objects

2025 AAANZ CONFERENCE | UNRULY OBJECTS

Wednesday 3 to Friday 5 December 2025, University of Western Australia, Perth

Hosted by The Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, The Berndt Museum, and the UWA School of Design, and supported by the Institute of Advanced Studies.

The 2025 conference looks at the uncontrollable, excessive, surplus and unruly qualities of objects that we attempt to study, curate, discipline and subject to discourse. Thinking beyond simply the agency of objects, we turn specifically to their rowdy, disruptive, and ungovernable aspects – whether they be leaking out of unwieldy collections, unexhibitable or unthinkable, fugitive or lost, or brimming with vitality, power or ancestral subjectivity.

The 2025 Conference Organising Committee are:

Jessyca Hutchens, UWA
Paul Boyé, UWA
Oron Catts, UWA
Theo Costantino, UWA
Darren Jorgensen, UWA
Rebecca McCauley, UWA
Kit Messham-Muir, Curtin University
Sam Beard, AAANZ
Katrina Grant, AAANZ
Rebecca Renshaw, AAANZ

Registration and program

Program and schedule Keynotes Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, Māori and Pasifika caucus Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, Māori and Pasifika registration Registration 

Conference information

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Registration costs, accommodation and flights Low income bursary application Unruly Art in the Colony – Sovereign Art Histories: First Nations Open Panel Call for papers CLOSED Information for conference convenors Call for sessions CLOSED

Key dates

Call for sessions deadline
Monday 28 April extended to Monday 5 May

Panel convenors notified
Monday 19 May

Call for papers announced
Wednesday 18 June

Call for papers closes
Wednesday 16 July extended to Wednesday 23 July

Panel convenors confirm all speakers
Wednesday 30 July

First Nations Open Panel opens
Wednesday 13 August

Early bird registrations open
Monday 22 September

First Nations Open Panel closes
Friday 3 October

Program schedule announced – DRAFT
Monday 13 October

Early bird registrations close
Sunday 26 October

Registrations close
Wednesday 26 November

Conference dates
Wednesday 3 to Friday 5 December