Unconscious Geography

Seventh Gallery 2015

A small room houses a mesh enclosure inside its perimeter. The enclosure is weathered, rusted and strained with fissures, some are small and some large enough to move through. Hanging inside the enclosure, facing inwards are five framed works - detailed black and white ink drawings and photographic etchings. To see these works one has to peer through the fence, or enter the enclosure itself.

Unconscious Geography is an installation that explores space, boundaries and institutional representations of nature and the landscape. Taking its departure from the term ‘Terrain Vague’, used to describe marginal and ambiguous sites that punctuate the urban landscape, a product of the contemporary urban condition. Unconscious Geography focuses on the tragic poetics of an urban microcosm within Melbourne’s inner west. Over the past two years Bishops practice has investigated the altered landscape of urban Australia and the ecological, historical and social narratives of place defined through a fluid space between the site, studio and gallery.