Hannah Gadsby's Oz (ATOM Study Guide)

Australian stand-up comedian Hannah Gadsby is a closet art scholar. Armed with a rapier wit and desire to pick beneath the paint, she travels across the continent on a mission to debunk the myths of the Australian Identity as defined by our art canon. If our great works are to be believed, the average Aussie is a bloke in a hat who is hell-bent on conquering our gum-tree-infested landscape singlehandedly. Why has this mono-vision of Australia persisted for so long?

Surely there is more to us than our most famous artworks suggest? From first settlement to Federation to post-multiculturalism, Hannah will forge an irreverent new image of who we think we are through a re-examination of Australian art history. By digging a bit deeper and uncovering often-ignored histories and artists, Hannah will take on these painted white/male clichés to show us a more colourful and feminine vision of Australia.

Knocking on the studio doors of some of this country's most interesting contemporary artists, Hannah will engage with a new generation who are determined to break open the ideas of what it means to be an Australian. Many of these artists' works speak directly to our historical canon, challenging its point of view and re-interpreting it to ignite the issues still haunting our political and cultural landscapes.

Hannah Gadsby's Oz is a documentary series of three half-hour episodes that looks at how Australian identity has been represented in our art. As Hannah says, 'if you're not a white man in a hat you might struggle to see yourself in the Australian art story'.

Curriculum Guidelines

The program would be suitable for middle and senior secondary students studying Australian History, Culture and Society, Visual Arts subjects (including Art History) and Philosophy.