[1] Norman had enlisted in the army six months prior to Vivienne's birth and spent the majority of five years serving in the Middle East and Papua New Guinea, while Joyce and the children lived in Young, New South Wales.
[2][1] She never conformed to traditional gender roles, and, during a time of "initial, intense, introversion", was questioning her sexuality as well as interrogating the philosophies and ideas in making art, in particular Dadaism.
[3] Also in 1990, In 1990, she was awarded an Australian Arts Creative Fellowship, enabling her to undertake a three-year research project about the cultural link between Australia and the Asia-Pacific.
[5][3] In 1991, Binns spent time in Tokyo on an Australia Council residency, and later attended three South Pacific Festivals of the Arts, in Rarotonga (1992), Western Samoa (1996) and Noumea (2000).
[7] In 2019 Vivienne Binns was interviewed in a digital story and oral history for the State Library of Queensland's James C Sourris AM Collection.
Including notable works such as Vag Dens[14] and Phallic Monument,[15] this exhibition has been recognised as a key starting point for the development of feminist art in Australia.
[16] This exhibition was one of the first of its kind, predating Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party and "critically affirming the power of women's sexuality whilst also provoking... a good measure of castration anxiety amongst the patriarchy".
[17] Through decades of experimentation with colour and form, Binns has conceptually explored ideas ranging from feminism to colonial critique within her painting practice.
[18] Alongside feminist contemporaries such as Barbara Hall, Frances Phoenix (nee Budden), Beverly Garlick, Jude Adams and Toni Robertson, Binns was at the forefront of the development of The Women's Art Movement (WAM) in Sydney,[19] Beginning in 1973 and inspired by Linda Nochlin's essay "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?
In 1972 she collaborated with Mike Morris and Tim Burns on The Artsmobile, a travelling community arts project that brought Dada and Surrealist style performance work to centres along the north east coast of NSW.
Described as "the offspring of a marriage between Fluxus and a local town council bookmobile",[22] the Artsmobile brought a variety of art-based activities to schools, seniors centres and public parks.
Travelling and living in a caravan for two years in the Central West region of New South Wales, Binns stayed for two to four months in each town facilitating workshops, mural painting and skill sharing.
It started with 50 small dioramas, created by herself as well as friends, mentors, students and acquaintances, including Irene Maher, Mike Brown, Ruth Waller, Bonita Ely and Eugene Carchesio.
[2] In 1990, she was awarded an Australian Arts Creative Fellowship, which financed her three-year research project about the cultural link between Australia and the Asia-Pacific.