Elizabeth Presa is a visual artist and academic. Elizabeth studied Sculpture at the VCA and the Phillip Institute, then completed an honours degree in Art History and Philosophy at the University of Melbourne, and an MA and PhD at Monash University in the Centre for Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies.
From 1993 she taught in the School of Art at the VCA before being appointed Head of the interdisciplinary Centre for Ideas in 2003, where her focus has been on interdisciplinary curriculum and research design in the visual and performing arts. She has been a visiting artist at universities in New York, Korea, Singapore, Beijing and London. International artist residencies include several residencies at the Cite International Des Arts, Paris; Nanyang Academy of Art, Singapore, and a Research Fellowship for a project entitled "Interior Castle: St Teresa of Avila, architectures of space", at the Five College’s Women’s Research Centre, Mt Holyoke, Massachusetts. In 2013 she was artist in residence at Youkobo Art Space Tokyo to research the Ginza beehives; and at Pilchuck glass school in the USA. She was artist in residence and a visiting academic at Minzu UNiversity, Beijiing, in 2014. Elizabeth is interested in the thematics of translation between writing and art. Éditions Galilée, Paris, presented an exhibition of her work made in response to Chaque Fois Unique by Jacques Derrida, and she has written on the interconnections between Rodin, Rilke and Blanchot in After Blanchot: Literature, Criticism and Philosophy (University of Delaware, 2006). Her curatorial work has included three iterations of ‘Do It’ with Hans Ulrich Obrist, including one with the Central Academy of fine Arts, Beijing (see interview in Do It: The Compendium, 2013). Currently she is working on a series of beehive projects titled ‘Apian Utopias: Small Architecture for Bees’ which involves projects and exhibitions in Tokyo , the USA, Beijing , New Zealand and Australia. She has an ongoing interest in the interconnections between philosophy and art. Most recently she has written on art and object relations theory in "The Winnicott Tradition: Lines of Development", Eds. Margaret Boyle Sepleman and Frances Thomson-Salo, Karnac Books, London. Intersecting themes of infancy and childhood games as sources of productive freedom have prompted her recent sculpture exhibitions. Elizabeth Presa's work is featured in Verwisch Die Spuren (Diaphanes) by the philosopher Alexander Garcia Düttmann.
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Projects
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Project Types
1
Research Grant
Scholarly Works
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Honours, Awards and Fellowships
Five College Women's Studies Research Center
Credentials
Positions
Academic Coordinator & Head, Ctr For Ideas
Victorian College Of The Arts
Education
PhD in Critcal Theory and Comparative Literature
Monash University
Masters in Critical Theory and Comparative Literature
Monash University
Bachelor of Arts (Honours)
University of Melbourne
Postgraduate Diploma Sculpture
Phillip Institute of Technology
Diploma of Fine Art (Sculpture)
Victorian College of the Arts