Wish You Were Here (Redcliffe)

Wish You Were Here (Redcliffe)

Installation, 2024
Redcliffe Art Gallery, Moreton Bay, QLD. 
4 May — 13 July 2024

Sound by Mick Dick. 
Documentation Video by Christine Hall.

Wish You Were Here is an installation of collages, projected video, light, tape drawing and Augmented Reality. The project is a humorous retort to to the uncertainty in this era of compound crisis and the unseen labor of women. Uncanny household objects collide with uncertain landscapes. In search of progress, multiple figures attempt to travel, yet go nowhere. This interdisciplinary work transforms the isolation and endurance of contemporary life into a mesmerising carnival of ghostly silhouettes. Through repetitive rhythm and monotonous loops, non-specific locations and an unspecified time, this work blends the physical and the psychological for a moment of hypnotising and joyful reprieve.

This work borrows absurdist collage from Dada; steals its introspective title from Pink Floyd’s song of the same name; and visualises my experience of being a primary carer. The work acknowledges the emotional, psychological and physical balancing act of holding space for family. Domestic items indirectly speak to the unpaid, and unacknowledged, yet nevertheless expected responsibilities that women fulfil in the family environment. For me, the unknowable and surreal landscape of transitioning from daughter to parenting my parent is one of endurance. Wish you were here combines the loss of self, associated with caring for others, with a psychedelic continuum that promises endless energy to keep going in this weird and changing world. In terms of media: works on paper provide an accessible point of entry to the exhibition, while new media, lighting and projection components will expose audiences to the possibilities of interdisciplinary installation