Installed December 2005, Casula Powerhouse. Mixed media installation for the Artist Against Sedition Laws Exhibition. Curated by Nicholas Tsoutas.
I joined the army of artists responding to a call for works for the Artists Against Sedition Laws Exhibition at the Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre on Monday the 12 December 2005. I want to thank all involved especially the artistic Director Nicholas Tsoutas and all the staff who helped hang the works.
My contribution was a mixed media wall hanging made from a figurative oil painting, SMH newspaper cut-outs, framed photomedia prints, a fighting kangaroo-pen (from Brisbane), an old Tascam cassette recorder with a 45 minute cassette loop of the sounds of burning, whipping and sirens screaming on continuous play, two prepared vibrators, two prepared tuned bells from an old bakerlit telephone, two Dick Smith pressure pads plus whatever leads, wood, perspex, nuts, bolts and glue, etc.. it took to string the thing together. I built the work as a triptych with one predominant male and one female figure in each of the panels hanging either side of the mixed media panel (pictured) with all of the sound and electronic components. The figures in the painting look depressed or confused walking in a frenzy, looking over their backs, untrusting of whoever might surround them in what I see as a typical city streetscape of the near future if these laws are passed.
The interaction with the work was obvious. Once you stood in front of the work and made the obvious connections, one floor-pad, once stood on rang a bell for our freedom of expression, the other rang a bell for Australia’s current sedition laws. Vote NOW, time’s UP, make a choice, who knows how long this could go on for.