Reality TV and contestant-vetting is put under the microscope in Platform Arts latest exhibition

Drama, character assassination, and a rise in ratings; the ingredients that keep reality TV so addictive.

Djilang/Geelong contemporary arts organisation, Platform Arts, is launching their new exhibition season this weekend. Opening Saturday 2 August 2025 is a series of digital performance works by Naarm Melbourne-based artist Georgia Banks, titled Villain Edit.

Running until Friday 26 September, Villain Edit sees Banks dive into the world of reality television and AI, deciphering the make up of the ‘unscripted’ entertainment and its infiltration into the real world.

Villain Edit Exhibition

• When: Saturday 2 August to Friday 26 September
• Opening: 4.30pm to 6.30pm Saturday 2nd August. Artist talk at 3.30pm
• Where: Platform Arts, 60 Little Malop St Djilang/Geelong 3220 VIC

Death Warmed Up

• Performance Dates: Friday 19 to Saturday 20th September, 2025, at 7.30pm
• Where: Platform Arts, 60 Little Malop St Djilang/Geelong 3220 VIC
• Tickets: On sale August 2nd, 2025

Credits
Georgia Banks, Death Warmed Up
Curator and Producer: Anador Walsh
Videography: David Meagher
Production and Dramaturgical Support: APHIDS
Commissioned by Platform Arts with support from Copyright Agency Cultural Fund, the APHIDS
Supermassive Program, and Temperance Hall

Keep up to date with all things arts, exhibitions and stage here.

 

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The past five years has seen Banks explore Reality TV and AI as part of her artistic practice, considering ideas of death, fame, and legacy and their role in influencing viewers. She explores the way these programs provoke viewers into critically engaging with the ineffable ways these mediums shape and influence our identities, relationships, and the zeitgeist of our nation.

Banks adopts a character to determine these factors but has the character become her? The persona Banks creates has been banned from Tinder, sued by the estate of Hannah Wilke, and awarded Miss Social Impact in a national beauty pageant – spiralling and soaring as she navigates this new identity.

Through Villain Edit Georgia Banks builds a playful world in which Reality TV and AI are at the centre, blurring the lines of reality and realiTV. She promotes viewers to reflect on the ‘unreal’ cultures of the entertainment conglomerate and how they penetrate real culture with unscripted consequence.

The Platform Arts commissioned exhibition contains an immersive arts installation, a theatre performance, and a publication that reveals Bank’s gruelling commitment to the cause, presenting her research into both Reality TV and digital identities. Public participation is a key feature of the performative pieces, allowing viewers to take part in the contestant vetting process and even decide the fate of the artist by designing their funeral. It’s in your face, it’s invasive but it’s a bizarre reflection of the state of this medium.

 

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An alum of National Gallery of Victoria, HEIDE Museum of Modern Art, Centre for Contemporary Photography, and Gertrude Contemporary, Georgia Banks will be discussing the details of Villain Edit in a pre exhibition opening artist talk, taking place from 3.30pm on Saturday 2 August.

Accompanying the arts installation is a performative piece, Death Warmed Up. In her debut theatrical live work, Banks stages an immersive dinner-and-theatre event, transporting you onto a fictitious, live-taped reality television show. The scenario sees participants step into a set where amateur chefs compete for the opportunity to cater the funerals of public figures.

Death Warmed Up will premiere on  Friday 19 September with a second showing on Saturday 20 September.

Both Villain Edit and Death Warmed Up lead Platform Arts thematic exhibition and performance series, Un/scripted. As co-programmed by Platform Arts senior curator Dr Amber Smith and producer Penne Thornton, Un/scripted further includes works responding to the notion of contemporary identity and the mediated self as shaped by digital spaces.

 

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Dr. Amber Smith offers, “I am thrilled to be bringing Georgia Banks’ video and documentary works to Geelong audiences. This exhibition highlights the importance of Georgia’s robust and cutting commentary on contemporary reality-based media culture. In addition, it’s exciting to see this esteemed artist’s first foray into theatre premiering in Geelong, where Georgia will expand on her legacy of holding a mirror up to society—tackling complex topics with her usual wit, intelligence, humour, and rigour.”

Further details of Villain Edit, Death Warmed Up, and the entire Un/scripted program at Platform Arts, including ticketing can be found here.