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This
page offers me the opportunity to discuss a part of my art practice,
a number of site specific installations, made since 1991.The works have
attempted to deal with issues of access into public spaces, galleries,
universities, libraries, theatres, even toilets for people in wheelchairs.The
works have generally 'assumed' a mimetic form.They imitate, sometimes
a tradition such as the communication practices between teacher and
student, or between artist and gallery.Sometimes the work takes on the
form, chameleon like, of the architectural space it occupies,(see Blueprint)
or other works and genres of art. Within all the works, the spaces they
occupy, the voice of an other subject, possibly previously unthought
of by the viewer, speaks to open up a dialogue with the viewer.Some
of the work occurred spontaneously, in response to particular access
issues, but the bulk of the work was made during 1993-94 with a specific
strategy in place with my inclusion in S/he feminist trajectories.My
physical exclusion from the Bond Stores, the second site of the Sydney
Biennale, The Boundary rider, prompted first, a site work an uninvited
entry at the Bond Stores. |
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| More purposeful in intent, I began writing to a number of major Sydney and regional galleries, both public and commercial, asking them to assess their accessibility. The twofold purpose of the enquiries, was to raise the gallery directors awareness of the issue and to publish a directory of accessible galleries.The process became part of my every day studio practice. The work or number of works that developed from this unlikely start, come under the loose heading of empty room with steps and grid. and were incorporated into S/he feminist trajectories, that toured a number of galleries in Sydney, Canberra and regional NSW.The curators for the show became interested in the series of letters and the replies, due to the the strategies I was adopting, to engage 'recalcitrant' galleries, on the access issue. The curators recognised that the issue of disabled access, was as significant as race, gender and sexuality issues, already being addressed in the show. We decided to utilise the political potential of the documentation of my enquiries, letters and replies, transcripts of telephone calls and stories of experience. The material held within it, a wide range of institutionalised ideas and prejudices around disability and 'the disabled.' and to promote an active engagement with the intention of the work. | ||
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| The
installation with its modules grids/pigeonholes, repetitive steps and
thresholds, that mimicked formal, modernist, architecture and sculpture
was reconfigured in different ways, to work specifically in each gallery/site.And
was set up as a lead in to the works documentation As instances, in Canberra the installation took on the appearance of a shining ziggurat monument, a cyber matrix in New Castle, or later at The Gunnery/Art space, it was installed in the Ministry for the Arts office as an inhabitable, three dimensional, architectural blue print.Prior to the show touring, I started a dialogue with the galleries that would host it. My artists statement in the exhibition catalogue said, "The work and its documentation reflects the progress of the work in addressing access at participating galleries." Each gallery was effectively on display around its accessibility and this helped to facilitate a creative dialogue between artist, gallery and a viewing public. Significant gains were made by that process, in addressing and facilitating independent access into participating galleries. However at the last venue for the show, I was finally reconciled to the fact, that its director would continue to demonstrate a breezy indifference to access. |
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| Gentle violence was required here, a truly interactive approach needed to be taken. The original installation props were abandoned.The gallery entry, one step up and then two down, leads into a white neutral foyer providing an unproblematic approach to the gallery for the able body.The installation was made to interrupt the assumed seamless movement, expected by the public, through the foyer to the gallery within.Starting at the gallery entry, a glowing blue grid floated above an unreadable floor. The floor appeared to drop away, with each step taken forward. The intention was to disrupt any given mastery of the space and to force each person who entered to watch and unnaturally lift and change their step, in order to negotiate their way. Moving deeper into the grid, increased the difficulty 'deformation' and self consciousness of the body, those who gained access to the gallery to the 'art inside' had to work for it.As curator Rebecca Stringer explained, at an other version of the work, carried out at the ABC building in Ultimo. "Bodies looking at art, become bodies negotiating architectural space. rather than expect particular bodies, he, Ross Barber politicizes such an expectation. Rather than ordering bodies, he creates disorder for them to negotiate.Rather than provide solid ground, he leads us to question who makes the ground on which we situate ourselves on, why and for whom." | ||
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