Witness 2022, Still Photograph
29.7cm x 42cm (A3)
Hahnemühle Fine Art Print
Edition of 10, 2 AP
Photographed by Thomas McCammon for Ida Sophia.
Witness (2022, HD Video 12:12) was the winner of the Ramsay Art Prize 2023.
Submerged and uplifted, the repetitive baptism is relentless.
Witness investigates vain hope and the futile actions we perform. At 8 years old, I witnessed my Father’s transformative baptism. After, I observed religion become his “favourite” over me. I began obsessively performing a faux religiosity, praying, singing. Hoping to regain his love, despite knowing it wouldn't change his perspective. I could not see God the way he had. The work asks what vainly hopeful actions viewers have performed for others, motivated by self-serving ends. Emphasising just how exhaustive, violent and ultimately futile those actions can be. Palpable moments of fatigue breakdown the repetitive action, echoing the difficulty of maintaining actions in vain hope.
Witness was performed at The Pool of Siloam in Beachport, South Australia. A place where I learnt to swim, it also features in the Bible. Christ takes a blind man into the Pool of Siloam, miraculously restoring his sight. I located it here to underscore my futile attempt to ‘see’ God. My collaborating artists’ gaze intentionally looks out, a device used to make the witnessing viewer feel witnessed. The sampled and synthesiser sound composition builds with the action, commanding a firm and unrelenting grip that verges on madness.
29.7cm x 42cm (A3)
Hahnemühle Fine Art Print
Edition of 10, 2 AP
Photographed by Thomas McCammon for Ida Sophia.
Witness (2022, HD Video 12:12) was the winner of the Ramsay Art Prize 2023.
Submerged and uplifted, the repetitive baptism is relentless.
Witness investigates vain hope and the futile actions we perform. At 8 years old, I witnessed my Father’s transformative baptism. After, I observed religion become his “favourite” over me. I began obsessively performing a faux religiosity, praying, singing. Hoping to regain his love, despite knowing it wouldn't change his perspective. I could not see God the way he had. The work asks what vainly hopeful actions viewers have performed for others, motivated by self-serving ends. Emphasising just how exhaustive, violent and ultimately futile those actions can be. Palpable moments of fatigue breakdown the repetitive action, echoing the difficulty of maintaining actions in vain hope.
Witness was performed at The Pool of Siloam in Beachport, South Australia. A place where I learnt to swim, it also features in the Bible. Christ takes a blind man into the Pool of Siloam, miraculously restoring his sight. I located it here to underscore my futile attempt to ‘see’ God. My collaborating artists’ gaze intentionally looks out, a device used to make the witnessing viewer feel witnessed. The sampled and synthesiser sound composition builds with the action, commanding a firm and unrelenting grip that verges on madness.
29.7cm x 42cm (A3)
Hahnemühle Fine Art Print
Edition of 10, 2 AP
Photographed by Thomas McCammon for Ida Sophia.
Witness (2022, HD Video 12:12) was the winner of the Ramsay Art Prize 2023.
Submerged and uplifted, the repetitive baptism is relentless.
Witness investigates vain hope and the futile actions we perform. At 8 years old, I witnessed my Father’s transformative baptism. After, I observed religion become his “favourite” over me. I began obsessively performing a faux religiosity, praying, singing. Hoping to regain his love, despite knowing it wouldn't change his perspective. I could not see God the way he had. The work asks what vainly hopeful actions viewers have performed for others, motivated by self-serving ends. Emphasising just how exhaustive, violent and ultimately futile those actions can be. Palpable moments of fatigue breakdown the repetitive action, echoing the difficulty of maintaining actions in vain hope.
Witness was performed at The Pool of Siloam in Beachport, South Australia. A place where I learnt to swim, it also features in the Bible. Christ takes a blind man into the Pool of Siloam, miraculously restoring his sight. I located it here to underscore my futile attempt to ‘see’ God. My collaborating artists’ gaze intentionally looks out, a device used to make the witnessing viewer feel witnessed. The sampled and synthesiser sound composition builds with the action, commanding a firm and unrelenting grip that verges on madness.