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 / 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.