Living In/Living Out
Photograph by Martin Walch, from the installation Living In/Living Out, 1998.
A collaborative exhibition of sound, text and stereo images, drawn from the experience of work at the Royal Derwent Mental Hospital, created by Poonkhin Khut, Miranda Morris and Martin Walch and installed in the disused maximum security Ward C of Willow Court. Curated by John McQeenie, Arts Project Officer for the Tasmanian Trades and Labour Council.
Audio Excerpts
MP3 audio excerpt No. 3 - Gladys Kelly
MP3 audio excerpt No. 6 – Nora Johnson
MP3 audio excerpt No. 7 – Max Hardwick
MP3 audio excerpt – postlude (instrumental)
MP3 audio excerpt – residual (instrumental)
Programme notes
“In approaching the project – from the outset – I was interested in working with qualities of the ‘every day’ and the way this can serve to frame larger events in peoples lives. In accordance with the brief conveyed to us by Jock McQueenie: a work dealing with the history of work and working life at the RDH (Royal Derwent Hospital), I took as my starting point the texts that would ensue from the interviews with present and former employees at the Royal Derwent Hospital. This interest in the everyday, and the profusion of rich and distinct voices presented by the interview material combined with a profound sense of quietness and entropy, the unavoidable sense of an institution at the end of its life.
In working on the sound recording for this installation, I wanted to find some kind of balance between a conventional ‘music soundtrack’ and the palpable sense of silence and ‘here and now’ that seemed so much a part of the space (C-Ward, a former high security psychiatric ward) as it now stood. For a while I toyed with the idea of individual voices mounted on speakers throughout the space, but the highly reverberant nature of the corridors would have resulted in a babel effect, rather than the measured and calm framework I was aiming to establish.
Photograph by Martin Walch, from the installation Living In/Living Out, 1998.
The incidental and sparsely placed piano chords, with their prolonged silences were used to highlight this sense of lived time, suggesting some momentarily suspended period of clarity. We long to connect each note to the last, our memory straining to hold on to the pieces as they disappear into the silence; then another chord and we try and get some bearings on where we are; how that felt; and the stories being told. Thoughts become suspended in time by a ray of light as it filters through a window; by that last lingering piano note or by a bird song in the exercise yard. These are spaces we describe, and give meaning to, by listening; sounds and silences that can place the world around us, and our own internal dialogues, under a microscope for our own contemplation. The space provides a kind of mental ‘time-out’ from our usual day-to-day preoccupations to consider, for just a few short moments, the stories, histories and atmospheres of life at the Royal Derwent Hospital as presented in this exhibition.
…We decided to work as much as possible with the space ‘as is’ – complete with scuff marks on the linoleum walls, fluorescent lights and daylight spilling through the windows in the stairwells. The choice of site for the installation – C Ward – the old criminal division, was made not only out of a consideration for the security of our artwork and hardwares, but also for its commanding architectural structure. The oppressive sense of containment presented by this ‘prison’ ward needed to be managed sensitively, and in seeking to present a larger set of stories about work at the Hospital more generally, any overtly dark sentiments were held back, and left to inference by way of the exhibitions location, and their notable absences.” – George Poonkhin Khut, 1998
Production Credits
Jock McQueenie - Curator & producer, Tasmanian Trades Labour Council
Martin Walch – Photography and installation concept
George Poonkhin Khut – Sound design and installation concept
Miranda Morris – Writer and researcher (including all interviews with community members)
Exhibition Dates
September 6th–19th, 1998
Ward 2 (formerly ‘C’ ward), Willow Court, Royal Derwent Hospital, New Norfolk, Australia.