Carol Rudyard (18 November 1922 – 15 May 2021) was an English-Australian visual artist, known for her audio-video art installations. She was nominated as a Western Australian Living Treasure in 2004. Her works are held in the

National Gallery of Australia The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in th ...

, the

Art Gallery of New South Wales The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most importa ...

, and the

Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery The Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery is an on-campus art gallery at the University of Western Australia in Crawley. History The gallery was established in July 1990. Description It is supported by a "friends of" organisation. It contains collect ...

Early life

Rudyard was born in England in 1922, and was living in Sheffield when she and her husband left in 1947 when he was posted to the

Gilbert and Ellice Islands The Gilbert and Ellice Islands (GEIC as a colony) in the Pacific Ocean were part of the British Empire from 1892 to 1976. They were a protectorate from 1892 to 12 January 1916, and then a colony until 1 January 1976. The history of the colony w ...

. They moved to Western Australia in 1950, living in the towns of Mullewa and

Southern Cross Crux () is a constellation of the southern sky that is centred on four bright stars in a cross-shaped asterism commonly known as the Southern Cross. It lies on the southern end of the Milky Way's visible band. The name ''Crux'' is Latin for c ...

before settling in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

in 1956.

Artistic career

In the 1950s, Rudyard began designing textiles, and working with watercolours. In 1964 she won the

Festival of Perth Perth Festival, named Perth International Arts Festival (PIAF) between 2000 and 2017, and sometimes referred to as the Festival of Perth, is Australia's longest-running cultural festival, held annually in Western Australia. The program features ...

Poster Prize, and the Mundaring Art Prize in 1970. She was enrolled in an Associate Diploma in Art at Western Australian Institute of Technology (now

Curtin University Curtin University, formerly known as Curtin University of Technology and Western Australian Institute of Technology (WAIT), is an Australian public research university based in Bentley, Perth, Western Australia. It is named after John Curtin, ...

) from 1968 to 1970, and from 1971 taught classes there. In 1981 she completed a postgraduate diploma in visual art at Curtin, and in 1999 the university made her an honorary

Doctor of Letters Doctor of Letters (D.Litt., Litt.D., Latin: ' or ') is a terminal degree in the humanities that, depending on the country, is a higher doctorate after the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree or equivalent to a higher doctorate, such as the Doctor ...

. In 1991 Rudyard received a Creative Fellowship from the Australia Council. The

Canberra Times ''The Canberra Times'' is a daily newspaper in Canberra, Australia, which is published by Australian Community Media. It was founded in 1926, and has changed ownership and format several times. History ''The Canberra Times'' was launched in ...

described her ''Body language'' video piece in 1992 as "both clever and beautiful which takes the 'Unicorn tapestry' as a text, a phallocentric discourse on bondage and humiliation, which she examines from a feminist perspective". Rudyard died in May 2021 at the age of 98.

Early life

Artistic career

References

Further reading