This exhibition delves into the psychological torment of sensory deprivation and excess endured by prisoners at the Old Melbourne Gaol, exploring the loss of identity under constant surveillance. It examines how language acted as resistance, with prisoners etching secret codes into the walls as acts of defiance. The disciplinary systems theme connects the past to present, highlighting how control and systemic oppression persist today, particularly through the high incarceration rates of First Nations peoples. Finally, Speculative Futures reimagines the archive as a space for envisioning justice and healing, inviting collaboration to create new narratives that bridge challenging pasts with shared futures.
Exhibition Site
When the Old Melbourne Gaol was built in the mid-1800s, it dominated the Melbourne skyline as a symbol of authority. Inside the Gaol, dangerous criminals were held alongside petty offenders, the homeless and the mentally ill.
Between 1842 and its closure in 1929 the gaol was the scene of 133 hangings including Australia’s most infamous citizen, the bushranger Ned Kelly. Today you can visit the Old Melbourne Gaol to find out what life was like for the men and women who lived and died here all those years ago.
Guided Tours | Day 1 Thu 3 Oct 2024
Multiple times
9:15 AM - 10:15 AM
11:15 AM - 12:15 PM
2:15 PM - 3:15 PM
3:30 PM - 4:30 PM
Guided Tours | Day 2Fri 4 Oct 2024
Multiple times
9:15 AM - 10:15 AM
11:15 AM - 12:15 PM
2:15 PM - 3:15 PM
3:30 PM - 4:30 PM
Wrap up eventSat 5 Oct 2024
11 AM - 1 PM
(RMIT Building 11)
2. Candle Installation
3. Weight of Confinement: Distorted Senses
4. Mask of Rebirth
5. Revolving Door, Stone & Sea, Retrieval
6. Continuous Weighting,
Ongoing Issues: A statistical Perspective,
Books as Soeculative voices
7. Tangled Routes: Fabric of Forced Labour,
Old Melbourne Gaol as a Starting Point
8. Folds of Force: Overlaying Histories of Labor,
Century Layers: construction Mapping
9. Cyanotype, What Is Silence?
10. Lens of Surveillance
We would like to acknowledge the Wurundjeri and Boonwurrung people of the Kulin nation, the Traditional Custodians of the land on which the ‘14 Days to Go’ exhibition has been curated, designed, and maintained. We acknowledge the art-making, play and creativity that the Wurundjeri and Boonwurrung people have fostered on these lands. We acknowledge that sovereignty never ceded and we pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging.
© MCD at RMIT University