In 2021, Lisa Liebetrau undertook an artist residency at PICA where she delved into the PICA archives. During her research, Liebetrau discovered a wealth of information, memories and images of the early activities of artist groups and organisations that helped establish PICA, including Praxis and Artist Regional Exchange (ARX). Liebetrau used these archives to shed light on Perth’s art history and how it has shaped and influenced the present day.

“One of the points of reference was a quote by Noel Sheridan, who was the inaugural director of PICA, he had a quote that really stuck with me. He basically said that PICA will not collect things, although what it presents may be collected or refined by others. And it really stuck with me because, as we know, PICA is not a collecting institution. It’s always been experimental in its approach. And I kind of wanted to challenge that, from my perspective, is it not a collecting institution because the archive does speak for itself? And in a way that collection has informed a lot of different exhibitions? Yes, so it’s not collecting in the traditional sense, but there is a collection that I wanted to show the public.”

Lisa Liebetrau is an artist and Collections Officer with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) from Curtin University. Lisa’s practice utilises public and private collections to inform artworks and contextualise the site in which they are exhibited.