Rate My Professor Simone Slee

Associate Professor Simone Slee is Head of Visual Art at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA), Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, University of Melbourne. Her artistic practice originates in sculpture and extends to installations, photographs, videos, and sculptural objects that often engage the body. This work explores material agency, spatial relationships, and the performative potential of objects. Slee's primary research interest is sculpture, aligning with her leadership in visual arts education and practice at VCA. She completed her PhD in 2017 at the School of Art, Faculty of VCA and Music, University of Melbourne. Slee began working at VCA in 2006 and has progressed through key academic appointments, including Coordinator of Sculpture and Spatial Practice, Research Convenor for VCA Art, and her current role as Head of Art and Visual Art. In these positions, she oversees undergraduate and graduate programs, fosters diverse voices in visual art, and supports emerging artists through initiatives like the annual VCA Art Grad Show.

Slee's creative outputs are documented in the University of Melbourne's repository, featuring significant works such as 'Rocks holding together #1' (Sarah Scout, 2019), which engages with sculptural traditions and material properties. Her recent series, including 'Rocks holding up #16', 'Rocks holding together #4', 'Rocks holding up #18', 'Rocks holding together #5', 'Rocks holding up #11' (2025), and 'Tors happy to help – gravity is less over granite', investigate how expectations and agency of materials can be revealed and inverted in sculptural practice. These pieces build on 20th-century developments and New Materialist perspectives, incorporating video and other media to expand sculptural making. Slee contributes to academic discourse through public presentations, such as her Art Forum talk at the University of Melbourne, where she elaborated on her sculpture-based practice. As Head of Visual Art, she has highlighted the critical engagement in student exhibitions, noting in 2023 the striking nature of the VCA Grad Show. Her leadership cultivates spaces for diverse artistic practices within the faculty.