This Is Before We Dissappear From View

Background “This Is Before We Disappear From View” (2016) is a public artwork featuring a complex vocal soundscape that was originally developed for the 19th Biennale of Sydney (2014). Collaborator Sonia Leber and I responded to Australia’s mandatory detention of so-called ‘illegal’ asylum seekers, a policy that stages deterrence in the form of offshore prisons of hopelessness and dread. The research was informed by literature on social and theoretical mechanisms behind Western penal systems during the modern age, including Jeremy Bentham’s “The Panopticon Writings” and Michel Foucault’s “Discipline and Punish”. Contribution In 2016, we were approached by Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA) to rework “This Is Before We Disappear From View” for a gallery space. Given the new context we decided to develop the artwork as a performative archive. In the original iteration, the sound installation was framed by unique architectural structures that acted on unsuspecting audiences. In the MUMA iteration the artwork’s framing became the art gallery itself, which altered how the artwork was received. Research investigated redesigning the soundscape for the new content and developing sculptural objects to explore relations within the new exhibition context. This included developing a ‘take-away’ poster with an image of the original artwork and texts quoting phrases heard at the original site. Significance The reimagined artwork successfully holds a mirror up to philosophies of discipline and control, and to the ways in which these philosophies can be subverted. The new iteration of the artwork was exhibited in “Borders, Barriers, Walls”, MUMA (2016) and was subsequently invited into the exhibition “This is a Voice”, MAAS Museum of Arts and Applied Sciences, Sydney (2017). The work was favourably reviewed in Artforum, and MUMA director Charlotte Day acknowledged the “significant’ reworking of the piece” in her exhibition catalogue essay.