A public and exhibiting artist.
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I acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land that I live and work, the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung People of the Kulin Nation and their ongoing connection to land, waters and culture. I also acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded.
Still in a work in progress.
I have been exploring ways of how we can change how public space feels and performs. Over time a lot of people attempt to explore similar such themes in numerous ways. I think when we talk about public safety, often survivors are asked to retell their experiences which can be retraumatising. Whilst there is a need for this kind of storytelling I am really focused on ways of working that allow survivors to co-design public artworks in a way that instead gives them power to change the narrative of space whether temporarily or permanently.
The Initial Pitch
A single, large sculpture. Colourful and brightly lit, temporarily installed in dark and unsettling sites. Creating temporary works for redress of unsafe public space, repositioning the way places feel or are used. This sculptural work is to be accompanied by a series of collaboratively created works with Benjamin Thomson of 3D rendered and potentially animated works. Depicting further investigations into what could be other temporary or permanent works, perhaps in light boxes of some description. Not only beautiful in a dark and bizarre space but building a groundwork for further investigation. The intention is for temporary interventions to redress and reposition public spaces. If we’re looking at the research done by XYX lab that says that they ‘discovered that when young women* have an unsafe experience is the city, 47% of them will avoid going back to that place. When they have an unsafe experience, we know that 12% of women* will not go back to that space when they are alone. Around 2% will never go back again.’ I’m particularly interested in how we can change this through site specific public artwork co-designed by survivors.
Participatory Workshop - A group of people who identify as survivors of sexual assault will be invited to participate in co-design sessions to individually and collectively respond to a series of questions and prompts regarding public space. Specifically pertaining to colour, texture and form.
A test workshop to help clarify questions and methods of working with a group of female identifying and gender diverse people will be run on zoom Monday 18th of October. This will help to inform how best to move the project forward. We will also take this information to create digital renders in response to their input.
I think the exciting and interesting thing about working in this way is that the process is quite clear but the outcome is variable. This project has the ability to be applied to different locations, responding to site, community and broader context. These variables will inform the outcome depending on who I work with and where we create this work.
Gender in Public Space Research - I’ve been speaking with XYX Lab about building on their incredible research. Education is a key component regarding safety in public space but I see my role within this space to sit adjacent to an educators role but instead build on that through participatory methods of art making to create change. So I see it as integral to create a research based platform to work from, to understand the best ways of doing things.
Very crude initial 3-d renders by Benjamin Thomson of translating my sketches into 3-d objects.They’re quite cellular and are a bit of subtle reference to things that make up us humans. More developed ideas are in the works.
Audience - The work has three main audiences; the participants, other survivors and those who do not consider their body in public space.
Trials and ideas