Frances Barrett at ACCA / Naarm (Melbourne)

 Frances Barrett / Meatus

A project led by Frances Barrett with Nina Buchanan, Debris Facility Pty Ltd., Hayley Forward, Brian Fuata, Del Lumanta and Sione Teumohenga

2 April – 19 June, 2022

Australian Centre for Contemporary Art

111 Sturt street

Southbank, VIC 

Australia


Frances Barrett, Hayley Forward, Brian Fuata,
worm divination (segmented realities) 2020, immersive sound environment
32:30 mins. Audio Engineer: Felix Abrahams Speaker System: Yamaha DZR10 and
DZR12 speakers, with DXS18 subs. Programming: Barco’s IOSONO 3D Spatial Audio
Rendering System. Commissioned by ACCA with the support of The Katthy Cavaliere
Foundation. ACCA also acknowledges the support of Yamaha; aFX-Global; Monash
University Art Design and Architecture, Melbourne; Chunky Move, Melbourne;
Vitalstatistix, Adelaide; and Artspace, Sydney. Courtesy the artists.
Photograph: Andrew Curtis


Del Lumanta, Untitled 2020,
sound installation, 15:00 mins, installation view, Frances Barrettt:
Meatus
, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, 2022.
Commissioned by ACCA with the support of The Katthy Cavaliere Foundation.
Courtesy the artist. Photograph: Andrew Curtis

Nina Buchanan, Body Scanner 2021,
multi-channel sound installation 15:00–20:00 mins, installation view, Frances
Barrettt: Meatus
, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, 2022. Commissioned
by ACCA with the support of The Katthy Cavaliere Foundation. Courtesy the
artist. Photograph: Andrew Curtis

 Sione Teumohenga, Untitled 2020,
site-specific sound composition, 14:04 mins, installation view, 
Frances
Barrett: Meatus
, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, 2022.
Commissioned by ACCA with the support of The Katthy Cavaliere Foundation.
Courtesy the artist. Photograph: Andrew Curtis


Debris Facility Pty Ltd, EarWorm 2020-22,
installation view, Frances Barrettt: Meatus, Australian Centre for
Contemporary Art, Melbourne, 2022. Commissioned by ACCA with the support of The
Katthy Cavaliere Foundation. Courtesy the artist. Photograph: Andrew Curtis

Debris Facility Pty Ltd, EarWorm 2020-22,
installation view, Frances Barrettt: Meatus, Australian Centre for
Contemporary Art, Melbourne, 2022. Commissioned by ACCA with the support of The
Katthy Cavaliere Foundation. Courtesy the artist. Photograph: Andrew Curtis

Debris Facility Pty Ltd, EarWorm 2020-22,
installation view, Frances Barrettt: Meatus, Australian Centre for
Contemporary Art, Melbourne, 2022. Commissioned by ACCA with the support of The
Katthy Cavaliere Foundation. Courtesy the artist. Photograph: Andrew Curtis

Frances Barrett / Meatus

Suspended
Moment: The Katthy Cavaliere Fellowship
is a suite of unique
commissions, originally announced in 2018, to support Australian women artists
working at the nexus of performance and installation. Drawing on her background
in performance, curating and collaborative models of making, Frances Barrett
has expanded the solo commissioning focus of the Fellowship to present new
sonic compositions and live performances by multiple artists. Alongside a major
sound installation by Barrett, developed in collaboration with Hayley Forward
and Brian Fuata, Barrett has curated specially commissioned sound compositions
by artists Nina Buchanan, Del Lumanta and Sione Teumohenga, as well as a series
of incursions by Debris Facility Ltd, responding to the concept of Meatus.

A ‘meatus’ is an opening or passage leading to the interior of the
body. Encompassing a range of sensations and functions, the plurality of meatus
becomes a way for Barrett to explore a practice of listening that decentres the
ear to activate the entire body, attuned to both conscious responses and
unconscious intensities.

Barrett has conceived
of ACCA’s four galleries as an immersive environment of sound and light – a
performative staging of the body, which bleeds and leaks, and into which the
audience may enter to consider the physical, sensual and critical experience of
listening.
Meatus foregrounds the affective and
relational dynamics of sound and listening to address the attendant and
expanded possibilities of the body.

Commissioning Curator
Annika Kristensen has said “Meatus is a radical reimagining of the art
gallery – transforming a space which traditionally presents visual experiences
into a theatrical and enveloping environment in which sound becomes the primary
object. It’s been a pleasure to work with Frances in her dual role as artist
and curator to finally realise this ambitious project, now presented at a time
when visitors can once again enjoy the embodied intensities of being within a
physical gallery space.”

Suspended
Moment: The Katthy Cavaliere Fellowship,
named
after the Italian-born Australian artist Katthy Cavaliere (1972
2012),
is presented in partnership between the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art
(ACCA), Melbourne; Carriageworks, Sydney; and the Museum of Old and New Art
(MONA), Hobart.