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