The Materialisation of Testament, 2024

The Materialisation of Testament is the artistic component of my creative practice PhD undertaken at the University of Canberra between 2020 and 2024.  My research asks whether an artistic response to Royal Commissions can act as a platform for continuing conversations around issues of social injustice.

Using the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (2013-2017) as my foundation, this research responded to the many, often harrowing stories told to the Commission by victims and survivors of abuse perpetrated by members of the Catholic Church - the inquiry being dominated by revelations of wrongdoing by this institution.  

In this exhibition I considered what it meant to be a witness to and make art about trauma that is not your own, and stories that are not yours to tell. I asked the viewer to envisage a re-imagined response by the Catholic Church – a response where the Church wears the shame of its offences – shame that has so often been unfairly borne by its victims and survivors.

The Royal Commission ended in 2017, and attention moves on, but the impact of child sexual abuse by the Catholic Church, and other organisations, continues to be felt. The need for survivors and their advocates to continue to be seen and heard has not diminished.