Silence and Disaster

Abstract

This project addresses the challenge of expressing an experience of disaster that is beyond representation. It is propelled by an artistic compulsion to respond to personal crisis wreaked by the 2019 bushfires. The studio works were produced with the consciousness of nuances of devastation by drawing from the theories of Maurice Blanchot and texts by W.G. Sebald. The studio practice is guided by the paradox of representing disaster that Blanchot puts forward: to depict trauma with the knowledge that one can only attempt to do so. Sebald's themes of loss and exile, his circumspect and indirect approach to representing disaster, and his use of photographs serve as valuable touchstones. Sebald’s responses to the atrocities of World War II drive the studio practice, which aims to find quieter means of expression. The sound artists Brian Eno, Steve Reich, Delia Derbyshire, and Burial each employ different techniques and aims, but what they share is a quiet approach to composition. Their respective practices reveal various ways of working with electronic instruments and field recordings to respond to the unease of foreboding architecture or personal memories of devastation. The study extends to visual artists such as Anselm Kiefer, Peter Goin, and Tacita Dean, who each conjure landscapes imbued with emptiness. Their various depictions of environmental destruction avoid sensationalism by paring back the spectacular elements of ruins and war-torn landscapes, conveying a heavier sense of despair.

The accompanying bodies of work reflect a fragmented psychology through an interdisciplinary approach involving photography, drawing, sound, video, and performance. Aligned with the themes discussed in the thesis, the works intend to display a more detached and less atomised perspective, moving beyond initial emotional responses to catastrophe.