Kate Vassallo is included in Obiectivus, a current exhibition at Deakin University Art Gallery.
Kate’s work, An increment of one (2026), is presented alongside a personal object she has selected for the exhibition: an entry badge from Dia Beacon, the contemporary art museum in New York. The small keepsake holds a significant memory from 2010, when Kate was 20 years old and completing her Honours year at the Australian National University School of Art and Design. During a trip to New York, she visited the museum and encountered large-scale installations by artists she had previously studied.
The experience marked a defining moment in Kate’s understanding of art and her own practice. As she recalls, it was an experience that affirmed her desire to spend her life making and being surrounded by art.
The badge, once worn by visitors to the museum, remains a reminder of that formative experience and the feeling of possibility it inspired. For Kate, it is one of many sentimental objects connected to memories that continue to hold a place in her art practice.
