> Free Artist Talk 12pm Saturday 9 March

Artist Statement:

Appearing to float in a black void, an escape artist thrashes wildly in a seemingly futile attempt to break out of a tightly shackled straitjacket. The audience watches in anticipation for the performance to culminate in escape and its trick to be revealed. But neither eventuate. In the moving image installation évasion, multiple takes of professional escape artist Ben Murphy re-performing Harry Houdini’s infamous straitjacket escape have been edited in a manner that both interrupts and restitches the event. A multilayered and haunting soundscape accentuates this sense of instability. Footsteps, belonging to someone unseen, echo around the spaces. The sounds of low ambient electronic drones and growls, fast contrasting swooshes, plaintive cries and close-mic recorded, intimate breathing, all digitally re-composed into a layered and continuous loop create a haunting atmosphere.

The adjacent cell contains the empty straitjacket. Perhaps he managed to escape after all.