Universal Power House

Background My research develops explorations around framing and territorialisation expounded through Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s concept of the assemblage. The installation takes as its starting point a striking building in Campbelltown, Sydney: the former headquarters of the “Universal Power World Society”, built in the late 1970s. Composed of concentric circles and perched on a hilltop, the building was to be the first of many branches of a global movement spreading a message of peace, love, truth, and a better life on Earth. “The Universal Life Challenge” (1979), self published by the movement’s leader Stefan Dzwonnik, introduces his concept of “Universal Power Laws” that regulate all of nature. Research explores how conceptual territorialisations can manifest and propagate within ideologies. Contribution For the installation “Universal Power House” collaborator Sonia Leber and I constructed an elaborate Perspex model of the building, a cabinet containing research materials and ephemera self-published by the society, and assembled a video. In the video, young actors perform texts from “The Universal Life Challenge” against the backdrop of local playgrounds rife with ascent-centred equipment, including: a molecular climbing tower; a ziggurat; orbiting planet-like rides; as well as the white domes of the Campbelltown Observatory. Significance The artists show how, through language and persuasive human expression, notions of territorialisation manifest in ideology. Commissioned by Campbelltown Arts Centre, Sydney. Exhibitions include the survey show “Architecture Makes Us: Cinematic Visions of Sonia Leber and David Chesworth”, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne (2018); touring to UNSW Galleries, Sydney (2019); and Griffith University Art Museum, Brisbane (2019); the group show “And Tomorrow And” at Index: The Swedish Contemporary Art Foundation, Stockholm (2018); Reviews: Art Guide, Frieze, Artforum and MEMO Review.