Bay of Sick

Full description

BACKGROUND
As site-specific installation and performance, Bay of Sick considers debates in the visual arts about the relationship between theatre & installation, performance & sculpture, and public vs private space—issues central to the expanded field of sculpture from the 1960s and explored by many artists since, including Marvin Gaye Chetwynd (British) and Justene Williams (Australian). Responding to the provocations of the title Monster Theatres, I transformed a colonial portico and vestibule—representing a society that brought disease to Aboriginal people—into a theatrical space to address ‘a monster of our time’ (pre-Covid)—the colonising force of quarantine within Australia. I explored related symbolism and the ways a participatory artwork could draw attention to this ‘monster’ and perform a healing role.
CONTRIBUTION
Bay of Sick was an installation that transformed a gallery architecture into a site of public performance. The vestibule was split into halves, one yellow, the other black (biohazard symbol colours) representing an arbitrary dividing mechanism whereby people can be segregated, sick from well, black from white, etc. Under the dominating eye of a huge banner based on that symbol, and wall-mounted costumes, visitors interacted with my pantomime hospital (or ‘dystopi-an well¬ness centre’) of sick beds under lamps, attended by gallery staff in costume. As a measure of its success, on reopening in 2021 this speculative space had turned real, with all visitors like patients performing covid-safety roles with new props.
SIGNIFICANCE
Bay of Sick, commissioned/funded by AGSA, was the public-facing work of the 2020 Biennial, with its banners hanging in the grand portico on North Terrace visible to all passers-by. It became part of a public conversation, singled out for mention in The Australian Indaily and Art Monthly Australasia for its prophetic relationship to the pandemic. It also led to AGSA purchasing a work for its collection: Earthcraft, 2020.