Kay Abude is a multidisciplinary artist based in Melbourne, Australia. Her expanded sculptural practice encompasses large-scale installation, photography, performance, video, and silk screen printing. Abude’s work is about work itself: the value of it, the effort, the inequality and insecurity of it, especially for artists.
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Recent commissions include BE CREATIVE REMAIN RESILIENT, Mural Commission, The Showroom, London, UK, 2023–24, and Smoko Room, 2023 Paul Selzer Prize, Fiona and Sidney Myer Gallery, Southbank, 2023.
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Abude has been the recipient of numerous grants, including Creative Australia Project Grants in 2025 and 2023, Hume Arts Activity Grants in 2025 and 2022, a City of Melbourne Creative Laneways Project Grant in 2021, and a Play King Foundation Grant at the Australian Tapestry Workshop in 2020. Abude was a studio artist at Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne, from 2019 to 2022.
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Production Line (Family)
Kay Abude
2010
Installation and performance
Exhibited as part of the 2010 Masters Exhibition at the Victorian College of the Arts and Music, The University of Melbourne
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This artwork formed part of Kay Abude’s Masters project and was a nostalgic representation of work as life.
In the early 90s, Abude’s Mum worked in an electrical factory and brought materials home from the factory to supplement her income. After school Abude and her sister made test-switches and exit signs in the lounge room of their house. Abude spent most of her childhood school holidays making electrical components and this sparked her very early interest in the factory and systems of production.
Production Line (Family) brought together members of the Abude family in a familiar working situation. Each family member was dressed as a blue-collar worker and formed part of a production line ‘making money’ by cutting white A4 paper into the size of the $100 Australian bank note.
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