A curatorial investigation exploring material, performative, moving-image and spatial forms that embrace agency and indeterminacy.
Temporal Proximities featured work by contemporary Australian artists that reflect on notions of displacement, entanglement and time. The exhibition highlighted interdisciplinary and process-based practices by foregrounding artists who work across video, performance, sculpture, installation and photography.
Exploring concepts such as transformation, erasure, suspension and drift, the artworks unfolded, looped and reconfigured throughout the course of the exhibition. A number of works involved live performative elements that were intermittent or durational. Something was always happening, but not everything was happening at once. With attention to the rhythm and dramaturgy of the experience, a loose schedule of cycles, sequences and trigger points were enacted and overlapped.
Presented in the heritage-listed Magdalen Laundry between 27 February - 1 March 2019, from sunset through to evening, the exhibition design employed dynamic lighting to augment the fading shades of twilight. A combination of new commissions, site-specific adaptations and existing works were installed in response to the unique architectural features of the venue.
Artists
- Commissions by Helen Grogan, Bridie Lunney, Gabriella Mangano and Silvana Mangano, Jill Orr and Clare Rae.
- A video work by Angelica Mesiti, and site-specific adaptations of previous work by Katie Lee and S. J. Norman.
Bridie Lunney
Opening Out (2019) presented a sequence of architectural interventions that nestled into the portals and cavities of the venue.
Re-forged from a previous work, Lunney’s brass inserts demonstrated an agential quality. They operated in dialogue with the history and fabric of the building to emphasise the temporal nature and transformative potential of material forms.
In response to the patina and residual spirit of the space — which had remained boarded up and closed to the public for forty years — the artist orchestrated a haunting vocal performance that invoked feelings of disappearance and loss.
Vocalist: Neddwellyn Jones
Gabriella Mangano
and Silvana Mangano
We close our eyes when dreaming (2019) mapped the surfaces and volumes of the venue’s architectural bones, applying a cinematic point-of-view that shifted ones perception of gravity.
Accompanied by an emotive soundtrack of bass-laden lilts and lulls that echoed throughout the venue, the artwork transferred a heightened sense of corporeality onto the viewer.
Acknowledging the site’s complex history, the artists placed emphasis on the temporal presence of women interned to work at the laundry, by choreographing intermittent performances that interrupted and distorted the projected image.
Composer: Marcus Skinner
Camera Operator: Stuart Mannion
Jill Orr
Laundry (2019) reflected on notions of personhood and place to articulate the potential of human agency and its capacity to exceed repetitious patterns of behaviour.
Referencing the historical function of the site, Orr executed full-body gestures that demonstrated fortitude, fragility and restraint.
Anchored by a corseted brace attached to a fifteen-metre train that spilt out of the venue, the artist connected interior and exterior spaces by performing a recurrent sequence of improvised actions that twisted, gathered and tugged at the fabric.
Costume Design: Alison Kelly, Jill Orr
Helen Grogan
cutting closer closer to the cache (2019) explored notions of synchronisation, slippage and rift through the creation of a compositional system and audio-visual score that choreographed the visitor’s process of perception.
To develop the work, Grogan undertook filmic, sonic and sculptural procedures that reflected and refracted the architectural environment. The resulting forms were presented as a layered field of frames positioned to redirect the social dynamics of the space.
Orchestrated out of incidental phenomena such as twisting feet on loosened grit interspersed with the warble and clang of sheet metal manipulated by the artist, the soundtrack punctuated the exhibition’s aural envelope with textured peaks and troughs.
Score Participants: Geoff Robinson, Helen Grogan
Katie Lee
Set Elements (2017-19) was a scenographic display of sculptural objects made from items found in our domestic and built environment, such as concrete blocks, ropes and steel rods, mirror, chalk board and wooden boxes. These elements were arranged on a stage and suspended from a handcrafted rig integrated into the heritage truss.
The material composition was periodically disrupted by a cycle of action, counter-action and rest that reflected on notions of synergy and interdependence, as well as the socio-spacial implications of displacement. These transient interventions were accompanied by an ongoing sequence of reorientations and replacements enacted by the exhibition invigilators.
Choreographers / Performers: Katie Lee, Arabelle Frahn-Starkie
Additional Performers: Eight invigilators
Clare Rae
Untitled Actions: Magdalen (2019) was a photographic, self-portrait series recording performative gestures enacted in dialogue with the operational history and spatial contours of the building.
Depicting a sequence of bodily pockets, arched volumes and bends, the artwork reflected on the physical consequences of toil.
Referencing a frame-by-frame cinematic timeline, the photographs were presented as a stack of limited edition, risographic prints that audiences could take home. By displaying and distributing the work in this way, Rae transferred agency onto the viewer, while amplifying the spatial and durational impact of the work — within the exhibition and beyond.
S.J. Norman
The River’s Children (2013 - 2019) reflected on experiences of dispossession, displacement and servitude through the presentation of a scenographic installation and durational performance.
Repetitious acts of washing, hanging and bathing accompanied a projected sequence of hand-written slides listing the details of every aboriginal massacre recorded in both official and oral histories.
The work spoke to Norman’s own history as the inheritor of institutional trauma and broader legacies of colonial brutality, with specific reference to how these are entwined in the bodies of Blak women.
Performers: Mykaela Saunders, Carly Sheppard, Naretha Williams
Consultant: Aunty Diane Kerr OAM
Angelica Mesiti
Nakh Removed (2015) reinterprets a Berber ritual — The Rite of the Nakh or Hair Dance — associated with wedding and fertility traditions from the Algerian/Tunisian border.
To produce the work, Mesiti collaborated with women from the immigrant communities in Paris who have cultural links to the region. By invigorated this ancient practice, the artist drew attention to ongoing processes of personal and civic dislocation and precarity.
Unfolding in extreme slow motion and complete silence, the film enveloped audiences in an intensely rhythmic, visual pulse that invoked feelings of fellowship, while opening a portal into parallel places and times.
Advisor / Choreographer: Saâdia Souyah
Dancers: Saâdia Souyah, Mariem Guellouz, Akila Boutaleb, Karima Aouraghe
Curatorial Strategy
Temporal Proximities set out to question the conventions of exhibition display through research into the various ways that artworks may be positioned in time as well as space, how time is able to create space, and how such an approach draws deeper attention to the material, corporeal and socio-cultural relationships emerging between artworks that involve dynamic spatiotemporal components.
The overall aim was to position time-based, performative and process-orientated forms at the centre of the show, and to evolve an exhibition framework capable of embracing instability, indeterminacy and agency.
Welcome to Country
The exhibition launched with a performance by the Djirri Djirri Dancers, a smoking ceremony and Welcome to Country by Aunty Gail Smith.
Exhibition Credits
Curator: Kelli Alred
Audio-visual Design: Nicole Breedon
Fabrication Design: Ben Taranto
Lighting Design: Andrew Sainsbury
Temporal Proximities was the inaugural exhibition, launching the freshly restored Magdalen Laundry after it had been closed to the public for almost forty years.
The project was developed and delivered in partnership with the Abbotsford Convent Foundation.
Supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria and the City of Yarra.
Image Credits
Hero Image
Katie Lee, Set Elements, 2017-19, performance, and installation view, Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Photo: Clare Rae.
Bridie Lunney
Bridie Lunney, Opening Out, 2019, performance and installation view, Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Photo: Tull Alred.
Bridie Lunney, Opening Out, 2019, installation exterior view, Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Photo: Clare Rae.
Bridie Lunney, Opening Out, 2019, installation view, Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Photo: Clare Rae.
Bridie Lunney, Opening Out, 2019, installation view, Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Photo: Anne Moffatt.
Bridie Lunney, Opening Out, 2019, performance and installation view, Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Photo: Clare Rae.
Gabriella Mangano and Silvana Mangano
Gabriella Mangano and Silvana Mangano, We close our eyes when dreaming, 2019, performance, Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Video documentation still: James Arneman.
Gabriella Mangano and Silvana Mangano, We close our eyes when dreaming, 2019, performance, Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Video still: Courtesy of the artists and Anna Schwartz Gallery.
Gabriella Mangano and Silvana Mangano, We close our eyes when dreaming, 2019, performance, and Jill Orr, Laundry, 2019, Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Photo: Tull Alred.
Gabriella Mangano and Silvana Mangano, We close our eyes when dreaming, 2019, performance, Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Video documentation still: James Arneman.
Gabriella Mangano and Silvana Mangano, We close our eyes when dreaming, 2019, performance, Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Video documentation still: James Arneman.
Jill Orr
Jill Orr, Laundry, 2019, performance, Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Photo: Anne Moffatt.
Jill Orr, Laundry, 2019, preview photo, Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Photo: Anne Moffatt.
Jill Orr, Laundry, 2019, performance, Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Photo: Clare Rae.
Jill Orr, Laundry, 2019, performance, Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Photo: Anne Moffatt.
Jill Orr, Laundry, 2019, performance, Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Video documentation still: James Arneman.
Helen Grogan
Helen Grogan, cutting closer closer to the cache, 2019, installation view, Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Photo: Clare Rae.
Helen Grogan, cutting closer closer to the cache, 2019, installation view, Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Video documentation still: James Arneman.
Helen Grogan, cutting closer closer to the cache, 2019, installation view, Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Photo: Clare Rae.
Helen Grogan, cutting closer closer to the cache, 2019, installation view, Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Photo: Anne Moffatt.
Helen Grogan, cutting closer closer to the cache, 2019, installation view, Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Photo: Clare Rae.
Katie Lee
Katie Lee, Set Elements, 2017-19, performance and installation view, Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Photo: Clare Rae.
Katie Lee, Set Elements, 2017-19, performance and installation view, Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Video documentation still: James Arneman.
Katie Lee, Set Elements, 2017-19, performance and installation view, Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Photo: Clare Rae.
Katie Lee, Set Elements, 2017-19, performance and installation view, Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Video documentation still: James Arneman.
Katie Lee, Set Elements, 2017-19, performance and installation view, Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Video documentation still: James Arneman.
Clare Rae
Clare Rae, Untitled Actions: Magdalen, 2019, installation view, Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Video documentation still: James Arneman.
Clare Rae, Untitled Actions: Magdalen, 2019, audience view, Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Photo: Anne Moffatt.
Clare Rae, Untitled Actions: Magdalen, 2019, installation view, Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Video documentation still: James Arneman.
S.J. Norman
S.J. Norman, The River's Children, 2013-19, performance and installation view, Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Photo: Anne Moffatt.
S.J. Norman, The River's Children, 2013-19, performance and installation view, Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Photo:: Anne Moffatt.
S.J. Norman, The River's Children, 2013-19, performance and installation view, Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Photo: Tull Alred.
S.J. Norman, The River's Children, 2013-19, performance and installation view, Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Photo:: Anne Moffatt.
S.J. Norman, The River's Children, 2013-19, performance and installation view, Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Photo: Tull Alred.
Angelica Mesiti
Angelica Mesiti, Nakh Removed, 2015, installation view, Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Photo: Clare Rae.
Angelica Mesiti, Nakh Removed, 2015, installation view, Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Video documentation still: James Arneman.
Angelica Mesiti, Nakh Removed, 2015, installation view, Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Video still: Courtesy of the artists and Anna Schwartz Gallery.
Angelica Mesiti, Nakh Removed, 2015, installation view, Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Photo: Clare Rae.
Angelica Mesiti, Nakh Removed, 2015, installation view, Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Video documentation still: James Arneman.
Angelica Mesiti, Nakh Removed, 2015, installation view, Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Video documentation still: James Arneman.
Curatorial Strategy
Bridie Lunney, Opening Out, 2019, performance. Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Photo: Clare Rae.
Jill Orr, Laundry, 2019, performance. Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Photo: Clare Rae.
Katie Lee, Set Elements, 2017-19, performance. Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Photo: Anne Moffatt.
S.J. Norman, The River's Children, 2013-19, performance and installation view. Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Photo: Anne Moffatt.
Helen Grogan, cutting closer closer to the cache, 2019, installation view. Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Video documentation still: James Arneman.
Katie Lee, Set Elements, 2017-19, performance and Angelica Mesiti, Nakh Removed, 2015, installation view. Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Video documentation still: James Arneman.
Gabriella Mangano and Silvana Mangano We close our eyes when dreaming, 2019, performance. Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Photo Clare Rae.
Welcome to Country
Djirri Djirri Dancers, performance, 2019, Temporal Proximities, North and South Magdalen Laundry, Melbourne, 2019. Photo:: Anne Moffatt.
