The Intervention, Cotton on linen, 60x60cm, 2015
Death of 17yo Aboriginal Woman Melissa Dunn/New Lower Price, Everyday, Cotton on cotton, acrylic, glitter, felt 112x90cm, 2016
Asylum Seekers Searched Christmas Island, Cotton on linen, 60x60cm, 2014
Asylum Seeker Swallows Razor Blades, Cotton on cotton, acrylic, 112x90cm, 2016
Exhibited at Casula Powerhouse, Verge Gallery, Firstdraft Gallery, UNSW Galleries
This series of works explores images of neo-colonial state violence in Australia through the medium of embroidery. It draws a connection between Rancière’s distinction between public and domestic space, where the latter is determined outside of representation and “shared aisthesis”, and Hito Steyerl’s “poor image” that often applies to documentation of state violence. The domestic and state have a similar lack of resolution that regulates what can be seen, heard and contested. The images referenced in the series are from leaked images of asylum seekers and CCTV footage of Aboriginal death’s in custody and military occupation of Aboriginal land. Through using the historically domestic medium of embroidery to translate “poor images” of state violence I examine the connection between state and domestic censorship. The medium of embroidery implicates the domestic space in state violence and focusing on the particular neo-colonial mechanisms of the violence in Australia.