Vault

In March 2002, I was invited to present an exhibition at the Bundaberg Regional Gallery, as part of the celebrations for International Women’s Day. My installation was placed in a small gallery known as the ‘vault’. The Bundaberg Regional Gallery building has had many past identities, including being Customs House and later as a bank. The vault gallery was the safe during the building’s incarnation as a banking facility.

All of these aspects of the venue were very relevant in the production of this series of works that comprised of photocopy transparencies placed in deep frames and lit as to produce shadows on the wall.

The source material, procured from early colonial sketches, depicted images of migrants, rural Australia and migrant ships. The central motif in the installation was an image of Caroline Chisholm, the famous Australian woman pioneer. I decided to use her image for a number of reasons: