Disoriented, herded, controlled, displaced. Two Canberra artists Denise Higgins and Gary Smith are aiming to recreate some of the experiences of asylum seekers in Australia with a maze made of barbed wire and mirrors.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The ambitious project will transform the 140-square-metre Canberra Contemporary Art Space Gallery, with mirrors making it appear five to 10 times larger.
But such a concept comes at a price. The 75 1.2x2.4-metre mirrors alone will cost around $12,000. Then there are the surveillance equipment, microphones, lights, cameras, PA systems, 500 linear metres of timber, 1.5 kilometres of barbed wire, and 8 kilometres of paint, which will bring the maze to life for a price tag of around $20,000.
So the long-time collaborators have turned to crowd funding, with a target of $7000.
Their last installation, Vox Nautica, explored ideas of beauty and wonder inspired by journeying to Antarctica. This time, when they were asked by CCAS director David Broker to create an exhibition, the first idea that popped into their heads was terror.
"I think, in some ways, terror is close to wonder because of that sense of awe, but it comes from a very different space," Higgins said.
"We were also thinking about the increasing number of people trying to seek refuge here and the escalating context of seeing that as something the Australian government doesn't want to deal with, turning them off shore and making it somebody else's problem."
But Higgins says the installation is not strictly political; instead the artists want the audience to experience for themselves what it feels like to be of control.
"It's like a modern-day pilgrimage: you have to make your way through this space, you've got to find a route, you'll have encounters, you'll have dead ends, you'll have things you have to rethink," she said.
"The point of it is not to leave people with a feeling of terror – we're trying to evoke a sense of connection and empathy."
As well as detailed drawings of the "3D jigsaw puzzle", the pair have made a 1:15 scaled-down version of the building, but they won't see it all come together until they began installation in the gallery space about two weeks before the opening.
Higgins said the Pozible campaign was like "art lotto" – if the project doesn't reach its $7000 target, the pair will receive no money.
Other members of the Canberra art scene are watching the project with interest, she said, to see if crowd funding could be the future after Arts Minister George Brandis' cuts to the Australia Council.
"It's difficult to get arts funding for installation works that are ephemeral," she said. "It's not a permanent piece that people can acquire and take home as product."
The barbed maze will open at the CCAS Gallery at the Gorman Arts Centre on October 23.
To contribute towards the project or for more information visit: http://www.pozible.com/project/196660
