I feel the earth move under my feet (2019)

Installation views at Incinerator Gallery, Melbourne (2019). Mixed media sculptural and audio installation: Pine, MDF, basalt rocks, besser blocks, bricks, cotton, acrylic paint, adhesives, mirrors, speakers, speaker wire and 40-minute soundscape (in collaboration with Edwina Stevens). Dimensions variable. Photos: Matthew Stanton.

‘I feel the earth move under my feet’ is a sculptural and audio response to research undertaken at Melbourne’s Living Museum of the West in Maribyrnong. The work investigates 3 intersecting narratives of time, place and volatility specific to the site; its ancient volcanic landscape, its industrial history of women working in explosives factories and the material disintegration of its archived oral histories in the present museum and visitor centre. Through sampling archives, sounds and objects collected and inspired by the site, the installation reconstructs an alternate audio and sculptural narrative that shifts between past and present. Developed in collaboration with sound artist Edwina Stevens, the installation’s soundscape resurrects some of the hidden histories and voices of Melbourne’s West to speak through the material fragments of its contemporary context.

Using samples of archival interviews with the women, readings of geological publications and newspapers, field recordings and synthesised sounds, the installation weaves a sonic narrative in conversation with found and fabricated sculptural fragments of the past and present site. Embedded in the sculptural materiality of the installation, the 5-channel soundscape emerges through clusters of vintage speakers and sculptures, acting as conduits for the resurrected voices that float around the space. Disintegrating and reconstructed archival boxes and factory signs merge with the women’s wartime anecdotes of danger, volatility and feminism; a kettle starts boiling, merging into a volcanic rumbling around ancient basalt rocks and construction site debris; past and present geological, industrial and feminist narratives of Melbourne meet, merge and shape shift around the space.

This work was presented as a sculptural and 5-channel audio installation at Incinerator Gallery in 2019 and as a stereo soundscape as part of Radiophrenia, Centre for Contemporary Art, Glasgow in 2019.