Site 6. Joy Hardman (Australia)
Scrying (1995)
Choir Practice Room, Christchurch Cathedral
2nd September - 15th October 2002

On automatic repeat this video project went on and on and on: the artist sang and gestured her way through as many Sunday School songs as she could remember...fifteen in fact, each one recalling a 1960s childhood spent in a rigidly Protestant home. Scrying means 'to gaze into a transparent or reflective surface in order to find deep knowledge...to see images that reveal the future, or secrets of the past and present'. Located in the choir practice room in the tower of the Cathedral, the work both absorbed and augmented its surroundings. In this context, the tiered seating, the choir-master's position, the shelves filled with words and musical scores were given another dimension: what began as a personal exploration of memory and childhood captured on video became for viewers a 'reflective surface' within which it was possible for them to see a part of themselves.

Curator: Ewen McDonald