Through a powerful display of different artistic mediums, including canvas, ceramic, collage and film, artists from across Australia offer their interpretation of themes from a new book by Professor Ramona Vijeyarasa from the UTS Faculty of Law, Rewriting the Rules: Gender-Responsive Lawmaking for the Twenty-First Century.
Rewriting the rules
Art as a tool for knowledge translation
Ramona regards the fusion of art and scholarship as a means of not only provoking reflection, but also helping to catalyse meaningful social and legislative change.
"Art has long offered a way to translate complex or seemingly distant ideas into something that resonates more deeply with the public. Legal debates, particularly those around lawmaking and legislative design, are often viewed as impenetrable or abstract," she explained.
The exhibition brings women’s lived experiences into focus through canvas, ceramics, collage and film with works by Mona Forghani, Mark Valenzuela, Armin Awan, Willow Ferris, Barbara Doran, Tori-Jay Mordey, Julie Kowald and students from Sydney's International Grammar School. The artworks explore themes of home, work, safety, freedom and the digital world, inviting audiences to reflect on how laws and norms shape women’s lives.
Art has long offered a way to translate complex or seemingly distant ideas into something that resonates more deeply with the public.
Ramona created this exhibition to respond to that challenge by using art to transform legal research into experiences that are felt as much as understood.
"Through visual language, the works make legal concepts tangible, prompting exhibition-goers to reflect, question and ultimately support more responsive policy and legislative reform," she said.
"This exhibition celebrates the synergy that emerges when creative practice meets rigorous research. Together, they push beyond the traditional edges of both law and academia. With Rewriting the Rules, it is hoped that the fusion of art and scholarship will not only provoke reflection but also help catalyse meaningful social and legislative change."
Ramona said the exhibition is intended to bring the book’s ideas to life in ways traditional policy discussion cannot: “Debates about law can feel distant, abstract or inaccessible. Art transforms them into something we can see, feel and respond to.”
At its heart, this exhibition is fostering a more accessible conversation about the law. Visitors are invited to step inside, question the status quo and ask themselves: if we could rewrite the rules, what would they be – and who would they finally serve?
Through visual language, the works make legal concepts tangible, prompting exhibition-goers to reflect, question and ultimately support more responsive policy and legislative reform.
About Ramona’s research
Ramona joined UTS in 2017 and has since collaborated with UTS Rapido Social Impact on a project designed to reshape how law is made from a gender perspective.
“The idea of the law as a tool for social justice is a shared value across the Faculty,” Ramona said.
“Issues of injustice impact people from every life path. We’re really conscious of the need to bring this gendered and intersectional lens to our research and teaching.”
Ramona’s book unpacks the idea that much of the discrimination women face is embedded in the law.
Issues of injustice impact people from every life path. We’re really conscious of the need to bring this gendered and intersectional lens to our research and teaching.
“A major part of the problem is that legislators either unintentionally embed discrimination in our laws, or they fail to see how laws can be better used to advance the interests of a greater diversity of women,” Ramona said.
Her work addresses these flaws by providing the legal system with tools that will help deliver better outcomes for women.
The Gender Legislative Index
Developed by Ramona to assess whether legislation is gender responsive and takes women’s rights and needs into account, the Gender Legislative Index has been piloted on over 130 laws across six countries.
The results have shown examples of both good and poor performing laws.
“For instance, the Index shows when a law fails to ensure women have access to essential services or the law denies women free decision making or leaves a woman whose rights have been abused without a fair remedy and with no access to justice,” Ramona said.
“I call laws that fail to meet international standards ‘gender-regressive’.”
For instance, the Index shows when a law fails to ensure women have access to essential services or the law denies women free decision making or leaves a woman whose rights have been abused without a fair remedy and with no access to justice.
Changing legislative systems
The Index is already driving change, with Tasmania using the tool to establish Australia’s first ever parliamentary Gender and Equality Audit Committee. The Committee is currently auditing draft legislation to ensure gender responsiveness.
While the Index is powered by data, its blend of human evaluation and AI assessment is unique. Evaluators assess individual laws against seven criteria and rank them as being gender regressive, blind, neutral or responsive.
Machine learning is used to provide a final overall score on a scale of ‘complete disregard for international law’ to ‘meeting international standards’.
About the exhibition
Coinciding with the launch of Rewriting the Rules: Gender-Responsive Lawmaking for the Twenty-First Century, the Rewriting the rules art exhibition invites viewers to reconceptualise life for women if rules were drafted to reflect women’s lives, needs and experiences.
The exhibition offers a bold reimagining of how the law can advance gender equality in the twenty-first century and brings to life the aspirations and complexities involved in centring women in legislation.
A collective call to build legal systems that serve all women, each artist offers their own interpretation of the ideas in Ramona’s book, using a dynamic display of different mediums. The exhibition navigates across women’s worlds of work and home, from spaces and places of violence to freedom, to all corners of the globe and the virtual world.
Be challenged to think beyond a linear pathway: sometimes equality for women means de-gendering our norms and expectations. As you step inside, ask yourself: if you could rewrite the rules, what would they look like?
What’s next?
- Visit the Rewriting the rules exhibition in UTS Central Building 2 foyer until 13 March 2026. Browse the catalogue
- Download Rewriting the Rules: Gender-Responsive Lawmaking for the Twenty-First Century for free from the University of California Press.
- Learn more about Ramona Vijeyarasa’s research.