STAFF PROFILE
Ms Fleur Summers
Fleur Summers is a lecturer in sculpture at the School of Art, RMIT. She focuses on teaching developmental working processes with reference to spatial practice.
Fleur began her academic life studying science and worked professionally as a microbiologist for several years. This experience and ongoing interest in natural science informs and enriches her work.
Fleur is a practicing visual artist and has been exhibiting her work for the last decade in artist run galleries and other spaces in Melbourne. Fleur was a studio artist at 200 Gertrude Street in 1999 and produced installation-, video- and object-based works. She has also been involved in a series of experimental, collaborative projects with other artists and with a theatre director and writer in 2000. A new body of work is currently in development as part of Fleur’s masters candidature.
Research
Fleur’s current project is titled Missing Links – Evolutionary theory as a model and scientific intervention as a strategy for artistic process and production. This project questions the production of knowledge through the synthesis and analysis of a collection of sculptural objects. It explores and constructs taxonomies and genealogies of objects from a series of disciplines including botany, evolutionary biology, microbiology, archaeology and museum practice. This research is informed by the works of theorists such as Darwin, Foucault and Deleuze.
Research interests include:
- Process and duration
- Developmental working sequences
- Discursive formations including museum collections and archives
- Intersections of science and art and the studio as laboratory
- Collaboration and authorial identities
- Conceptual art, minimalism and installation practice
School of Art research cluster
Art and Environmental Sustainability
Research outputs
Australian postgraduate award
- MA
- BA(Hons), Fine Art
- Assoc Dip, Arts Visual Arts
- BSc
- Summers, F. (2019). Supreme Red Rods and Rectangles In: Melbourne Modern Melbourne
- Summers, F. (2019). Making Sense In: Making Sense Jewell Station, Melbourne
- Clarke, A.,Hulbert, S.,Summers, F. (2018). Towards a fair, rigorous and transparent Fine Art curriculum and assessment framework In: Arts, 7, 1 - 16
- Summers, F. (2017). Thinking Machines In: Let's Play - The art of our time Narrewarren, Melbourne
- Summers, F.,Clarke, A. (2015). In-betweenness: being mother, academic and artist In: Journal of Family Studies, 21, 235 - 247
- Summers, F. (2015). Dissociative Dialogues In: Dissociative Dialogues Melbourne Australia
- Summers, F. (2015). Supreme Red Rods In: Supreme Red Rods Melbourne, Australia
- Summers, F. (2014). Transpositions - A Proposition for the 21st Century Library In: Transpositions - A Proposition for the 21st Century Library Melbourne, Australia
- Summers, F. (2014). Playtime In: The Substation Contemporary Art Prize Melbourne, Australia
- Summers, F. (2014). Infinitely malleable - approaching contemporary sculptural practice through the notion of neural plasticity In: Proceedings of the ACUADS 2014 Conference: The Future of Discipline, Melbourne, Australia, 2-3 October 2014
3 Masters by Research Current Supervisions6 PhD Completions and 3 Masters by Research Completions
- The Children’s Sensorium in the Community: Nature, art & play for post-pandemic recovery. Funded by: Australia Council for the Arts - Arts Projects for Individuals and Groups from (2024 to 2024)