4 December 2021 – 20 March 2022
Online
Simona Castricum is a musician, DJ, producer and doctoral candidate in architecture at the University of Melbourne. Within her multi-disciplinary practice, Castricum reflects on queer and gender nonconforming experiences of design, public space and civic life based on her own lived experience. ‘As I move in and out of visibility for my own safety,’ Castricum notes, ‘my formative experiences of public space inform my tactics, strategies to mitigate risks posed by the hostility of the urban cisnormative paradigm.’
As an author and advocate, Castricum has written and consulted widely on issues of visibility, safety and inclusion in public space. In 2017, Castricum wrote on experiences of transphobia in transit en-route to an international performance in Public Spaces: “My Lifted Jumper”. Most recently in 2021, Castricum authored additions to the Music Victoria Best Practice Guidelines for Live Music Venues for Transgender and Gender Diverse Inclusion. As Castricum explains: ‘These two pieces sit together – one as a problem, the other as a solution.’
Public Spaces: “My Lifted Jumper”, The Lifted Brow, Issue 34, 2017.
Guidelines on Transgender and Gender Diverse Inclusion.
Castricum has released three acclaimed albums and is well known within the Australian independent music scene, having performed extensively within festivals and clubs, in addition to running the independent record label Trans-Brunswick Express. Castricum celebrates the unique potential of music, noting that ‘a five-minute pop song can communicate complex ideas in ways an 80,000-word academic thesis cannot.’ Castricum’s dynamic music videos also act in concert to ‘present music as a site of transing through lived experience – relationships, community, resistance, and celebration.’
These four music videos are on display at ACCA in the Project Space: The Hoarding over the duration of the exhibition.
Simona Castricum
The Present 2020
music video, 4:10 mins
Supertouch (ft m8riarchy) 2020
music video, 5:18 mins
Cinematographer Gianna Mazzeo
Nights Don’t Breathe 2016
music video, 5:07 mins
No Allegiance 2015
music video, 3:52 mins
Producer Harry Hughes
Courtesy the artist