Memento Mori

Printed by RedPlanet which was a screen printing and design studio based in Melbourne actively producing political posters from 1992-99. This collective formed through the merger of two groups – Brunswick’s Redletter Press and Richmond’s Another Planet. RedPlanet produced work commissioned by community groups, youth and women’s groups, and on a range of topics including equality, housing, anti-nuclear action, sex health promoted by the Prostitutes Collective of Victoria. Their posters usually contained cutting political messages and images.  

Political image making and poster production were often intertwined and particularly strong in the 1970s and up to the 1990s. Most of the posters were inspired by an anti-elitist approach that aimed to make art available to everyone instead of keeping it in gallery collections.   

‘It opened up access for people who didn't have a voice in the community, including Aboriginal groups and migrant communities; people who were overlooked by the media.’ – Julia Church, co-founder of RedPlanet stated.  

Nicholas Mau made this work, as part of the RedPlanet Artists in Residence Program in 1993. It features a monument erected in memory of the suburban dream with the text: ‘Memento mori’ (remember you must die) and figures depicted in the style of children’s book illustrations enacting traditional gender roles in a domestic setting.