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Bystander @ Performance Space

Performance Space at the Carriage Works, in Eveleigh, is fast becoming a prominent attraction within South Sydney’s world of art. Not only has it breathed new life into the once decrepit and decaying buildings of the old State Rail maintenance yards, it is giving many local artists a hub to display their work reports Nicholas McCallum in the South Sydney Herald of September 2007.

Bystander is a recent installation by Ross Gibson and Kate Richards in a suite of projects called ‘Life After Wartime.’ Te installation is compiled from photos from a crime scene archive that was rescued from a food decades ago. All the information on judgements and sentencing that went along with the photos was lost in the food.

Eerie music sets the scene before even entering the chamber. Te perpetual looping of sounds and music parallels the visual display inside.

Te viewer is engulfed in a seven metre wide pentagonal frame and presented with the haunting images of crime scenes from Sydney’s past. With the use of fve projectors,

Bystander continually circulates the mysterious photos and stories of people who once lived on the fringes of society.

Short, sharp sentences accompany the crime scene photographs: “Te hired killer has been voted Treasurer of his seaside bowling association,” stirring frightening thoughts of the lives of those in a world long gone.

Te seemingly chaotic visual display works as an interactive story. When visitors are calm and attentive, a cogent narrative develops. When visitors’ attention is diverted, the more turbulent the images and sound become.

Bystander remains as an epitaph to the stories of the lives that the artwork presents. It conveys the ‘last words’ of the people’s stories that have been lost to “the history of a town we know so well.”

Bystander is on display at Performance Space at the Carriage Works until 8th September. While there, be sure to see Homeland Illuminations by Jonathan Jones and Ruark Lewis, also running till 8th September.

Source South Sydney Herald September 2007 - www.southsydneyherald.com.au