Gallery 3
Dear Darkness
Hayley West.
What do we do with the remnants of someone’s life that have been left behind? Once the owners have died and objects are distributed amongst family members and friends, new custodians are appointed. Objects can become significant keepsakes, at times being revered like a reliquary of histories past. The ordinary can become exquisite, ensued with respect and benevolence on a mantelpiece, or hidden to be forgotten, safely tucked away in the shed never to be seen again. And what about discarded objects of the dead, the unloved and abandoned remnants of a life? Dear Darkness is culmination of parts once living, found vessels from the hand of a maker unknown, now reimagined as a receptacle to hold the cremains of other unknowns. Dear Darkness assigns new custodians to awakened vessels, breathing replacement memories into new entities.
This project is supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria program and the Abbotsford Convent’s c3 Contemporary Art Space
