Deborah Kelly
Deborah Kelly has exhibited around Australia, and in the Biennales of Singapore, Sydney, Thessaloniki, TarraWarra, Venice, and the Asia Pacific Triennial. Recent highlights include ‘Being Human’ at the Wellcome Collection, London (2026); her 2023 animation survey at MRAG; CREATION at Sydney Opera House (2022), Life in the Ruins (2018) Walter Galerie, Zurich; and Venus Envy (2017) at the Kvindemuseet, Denmark. She won the 2023 Ludwigshaven Videokunst Award and first prize in the 2019 Fotogenia Festival, Mexico. Her multidisciplinary work CREATION was the subject of a 2025 ABC TV documentary, now available on iview.
FOR CREATION is an artwork in the form of a queer insurrectionary science-fiction climate-change religion, centred on a sacred text by artist and writer SJ Norman, titled The Liturgy of the Saprophyte. Over the plague years Deborah worked with artists at the Museum of Contemporary Art, at the CWA in Kandos and in Darwin through collage workshops to bring The Liturgy of the Saprophyte into the visual realm. She made a seven‑minute film with the imagery created at these engagements, working with animators and musicians to add weight, narrative and dimension. Animation by Melody Pei Li, soundscape by Stereogamous, text by SJ Norman, additional voice by Lupa J.
