“If you think history is on your side, let me tell you women did not write these books. If they did, the stories would be different.” – Christine de Pizan
Australian artist and filmmaker Zanny Begg is known for exploring contested histories through video and installation. These Stories Will Be Different brings together three of her most significant works:
-
The City of Ladies (with Elise McLeod, 2017) – reimagining a medieval feminist utopia.
-
The Beehive (2018) – probing the unsolved murder of a high-profile anti-gentrification campaigner.
-
Stories of Kannagi (2019) – exploring love, loss, and language in diasporic communities.
Begg’s practice questions the politics of storytelling itself. Working with ancient literary traditions, non-linear timeframes, and computer-generated randomisation, she challenges audiences to imagine the world differently. As Begg notes:
“All my work has been about ways of living and inhabiting the world … how we can live in the world differently. I am not sure if art alone can create a different world – but it can help us see how one could come into existence and the ways in which we can contribute to this process.”
A UNSW Galleries and Museums & Galleries of NSW touring exhibition.
Image: Zanny Begg, Stories of Kannagi (still), 2019. Courtesy of the artist.
