673 Bourke Street Basement, Melbourne, 2009

Winner 'Best of Visual Arts', Melbourne Fringe Festival, 2009

‘The lure of echo’ saw the public descend down a nineteenth century stone staircase to the meditative yet ominous heritage site-specific sound score. This dark ‘catacomb-ish’ six hundred meter square basement consisted of several rooms extending off rooms, spatially disorienting the viewer once entombed. The audience gradually encountered flour, ethereally sifting from several dimly spotlit suspended black square sieves. Over the course of several weeks, two tonne of flour sifted in sync to the vibration of the artist's soundscape. The sonic composition sculpturally translated the building’s aural landscape including its old cage lift, dilapidated penthouse ballroom and nearby railway underpasses. The architecture physically responded to the work’s acoustic resonance, immersing the viewer in this intimate, visceral labyrinth.

(c) The design of this artwork is protected by Copyright.

in medius res

Seven Thousand Oaks Festival, Melbourne City Square, 2010

‘In medius res’ was a site-responsive installation to Melbourne’s City Square as part of the Seven Thousand Oaks festival, exploring issues of sustainability. With the artist's predilection for immersive environments, the challenge was how to transform the atmosphere of a public arena, altering perceptions of space and place. Intuitively referencing the subterranean, this work anchored awareness towards our primordial foundations and what lays hidden beneath. Buried in the sand lay two hundred meters of tubing with six hundred outlets. Haze periodically and surreptitiously emanated, immersing the unsuspecting public, before wrapping the city skyscrapers. 

Shift, 2013

(Scroll down for film documentation)

Line & Pulley Installation throughout Victorian College of the Arts warehouse studio rafters. 

Winner of National Gallery of Victoria Award, 2013

Shift’ was huge multi-level string and pulley work installed throughout the steel rafter-space of a four thousand square meter warehouse. This two-kilometer line neurotically wrapped itself around one hundred hand-turned custom pulleys, throughout the heady industrial beams. Rectilinearly piercing space, the subtle dynamic system surreptitiously coursed overhead, before viewers realized it pervasively permeated everywhere. This closed circuit traversed different building floors, passing through the floor to ‘touch’ the ground at one point, anchoring the complex interweaved system akin to an electrical earth. This sculptural iteration of a drawing line was architecturally far-reaching, activating an immense empty volume that usually suspends unnoticed. 

Shift Beneath, 2014

Soundscape

Toured as part of the annual award exhibition of VCA Honours Graduates, 'Future Now 2014', exhibited through regional Victoria, including Warnammbool, Castlemaine and the Cowwarr Art Space. 

This spatial acoustic score was composed from the artist's haunting yet peaceful installation ‘Shift Beneath’; a site-specific appropriation of ‘Shift’ (2013) to the dusty architecture of a decommissioned electrical substation built at the turn of the twentieth century. Whirring around dozens of pulleys, this line coursed throughout the building's one hundred year old brick foundations, typically concealed from the public. Prohibited to venture beneath, viewers physically crouched at a tunnel threshold, experiencing the frenetic yet meditative flux of this rectilinear spatial surveying. At a single point in its journey, the line pierced the boards of the floor above, extending vertically to touch the building's ceiling, then returning to course and rotate beneath the antiquated architectural mass. 

Counihan Gallery, Brunswick. Australia, 2013

(Scroll down to the second image for film documentation)

'Sift' consisted of a dimly lit, suspended black square sieve, sifting flour directly in response to the vibration of sound. This ambient meditative sound score was composed from recordings captured from the local abandoned brick factory and town hall, including huge industrial cogs, squeaky council chamber chairs, corridor grandfather clocks and pigeons. Appreciated trans-culturally across millennia as a humble life-engendering medium, flour was venerated into an ephemeral sculptural column, translating the unseen aural landscape. This intimate and arresting meditative work saw hundreds of kilograms of flour accumulate at its base, avalanches eventually occurring whilst tremors resonated and interfaced with peoples’ stillness in the space.

(C) The design of this artwork is protected by Copyright.

2019

gold plated bronze

dimensions variable

lift

Exhibited as part of the Notfair Melbourne Art Fair 2014

(Scroll down for film documentation)

‘Lift’ consisted of an ethereal ten metre vibrating column, responding to the towering abandoned space of a disused post-office. Formerly established as a site of transportation and communicative networks, this accumulation of oscillating lines sonically activated the space. The audience sensing something, yet having the work evade them initially, was typically caught unaware upon realizing its elusive presence. The commanding column contrasted heavily with its constituting vulnerable wires. The formal verticality confounded viewers as the seemingly unsupported erect lines exited seamlessly beyond the exposed roofline. 

Transmit

Strange Neighbour Gallery, Melbourne, 2014

(Scroll down for film documentation)

‘Transmit’ consisted of seven kilometers of five hundred vibrating wires, amassed as a concentrated horizontal column, passing through the gallery above head-height. Perpendicularly shooting out from one wall, this resonating sculptural force field punctured space, to pierce the wall opposite. This dominant architectural intervention ironically evaded some viewers, rushing in to survey the ‘white-cube’ space at eye-level, momentarily mistaking the gallery for being empty. Others were alternatively lured from across the street by the hum resonating through the walls, curious to attest to its source. 

Somewhere in the middle, I drew a line. 

The Sol LeWitt wall drawing is generously loaned by the LeWitt family and Estate of Sol LeWitt, Chester, Connecticut, USA ⁠

Sol LeWitt, Wall Drawing #123A, 2026 ⁠
Acrylic paint, crayon ⁠

As part of ‘The Concentric Influences of Sol LeWitt: Foundations, Pivots and Place’ at RMIT Gallery. 
RMIT Gallery | 344 Swanston St Melbourne
05 Jun 2026 - 29 Aug 2026

Irene Barberis (AUS), John Hogan (USA), Fransje Killaars (NLD), Janet Passehl (USA), Wilma Tabacco (AUS); with a group of invited contemporary Australian artists: Jonas Balsaitis, Emma Coulter, Sarah Duyshart, Robert Hunter, Robin Kingston, Simon Klose, Sarah Lindsay, Jordan Mitchell-Fletcher, Kerrie Poliness, Antonia Sellbach, Jacqueline Stojanović, David Thomas and Anne Scott Wilson. 

Curated by Irene Barberis with Helen Rayment. 

This exhibition is presented by RMIT University at RMIT Gallery, in collaboration with Metasenta. 

@lewittstudio 

irenebarberis1 @helenrayment 
@emma_coulter 
@sarahduyshart 
@jhogan.nyc
@fransjekillaars 
@robinkingston_
@slindsay.studio 
@jordanm_f 
@passehljanet 
@kerrie_poliness 
antonia_sellbach 
@malarugs 
@wilmaathome88 
@davidthomas3378 
@annewilson7705 

@rmituniversity @cultureatrmit @rmitgalleries
@metasenta

‘The Concentric Influences of Sol LeWitt: Foundations, Pivots and Place’ positions Australia at the centre of an ambitious global dialogue on conceptual art, influence and the circulation of ideas. Instigated and directed by Dr Irene Barberis, the project demonstrates how Australian scholarship and curatorial innovation can actively shape international discourse surrounding one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century.

This exhibition includes ‘Dance: Vertical View’, a collaborative response to the original work ‘Dance, 1979’ by Sol LeWitt, Phillip Glass and Lucinda Childs. 

Choreography, Production & Video Co-direction: Anne Scott Wilson
Sound & Music Composition: Sarah Duyshart
Architectonic Gridwork & Video Co-direction: Irene Barberis

Dancers: M Collective @m.collective.dance
Supported by @deakinuniversity

‘The Concentric Influences of Sol LeWitt: Foundations, Pivots and Place’ at RMIT Gallery 

RMIT Gallery | 344 Swanston St Melbourne
05 Jun 2026 - 29 Aug 2026

The Sol LeWitt wall drawing #123A is generously loaned by the LeWitt family and Estate. 

Irene Barberis (AUS), John Hogan (USA), Fransje Killaars (NLD), Janet Passehl (USA), Wilma Tabacco (AUS); with a group of invited contemporary Australian artists: Jonas Balsaitis, Emma Coulter, Sarah Duyshart, Robert Hunter, Robin Kingston, Simon Klose, Sarah Lindsay, Jordan Mitchell-Fletcher, Kerrie Poliness, Antonia Sellbach, Jacqueline Stojanović, David Thomas and Anne Scott Wilson. 

Curated by Irene Barberis with Helen Rayment. 

This exhibition is presented by RMIT University at RMIT Gallery, in collaboration with Metasenta. 

@lewittstudio

irenebarberis1 @helenrayment
@emma_coulter
@sarahduyshart
@jhogan.nyc
@fransjekillaars
@robinkingston_
@slindsay.studio
@jordanm_f
@passehljanet
@kerrie_poliness
antonia_sellbach
@malarugs
@wilmaathome88
@davidthomas3378
@annewilson7705

@rmituniversity @cultureatrmit @rmitgalleries
@metasenta

‘The Concentric Influences of Sol LeWitt: Foundations, Pivots and Place’ positions Australia at the centre of an ambitious global dialogue on conceptual art, influence and the circulation of ideas. Instigated and directed by Dr Irene Barberis, the project demonstrates how Australian scholarship and curatorial innovation can actively shape international discourse surrounding one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century.

This exhibition includes ‘Dance: Vertical View’, a collaborative response to the original work ‘Dance, 1979’ by Sol LeWitt, Phillip Glass and Lucinda Childs. 

Choreography, Production & Video Co-direction: Anne Scott Wilson
Sound & Music Composition: Sarah Duyshart
Architectonic Gridwork & Video Co-direction: Irene Barberis

Dancers: M Collective @m.collective.dance
@chimenesteeleprior
@ariannamarchiori
@yourheartisyouroyster

Supported by @deakinuniversity

‘Dance: Vertical View’ is a collaborative response to the original landmark artwork ‘Dance’ (1979) by Philip Glass, Sol LeWitt and Lucinda Childs, as part of ‘The Concentric Influences of Sol LeWitt: Foundations, Pivots and Place’.

Choreography, Production & Video Co-direction: Anne Scott Wilson
Sound & Music Composition: Sarah Duyshart
Architectonic Gridwork & Video Co-direction: Irene Barberis

Dancers: M.Collective

Photos are from the live performance of the dancers within the installation at RMIT Gallery on 12 June 2026.

Exhibition runs: 05 Jun 2026 - 29 Aug 2026
RMIT Gallery | 344 Swanston St Melbourne

‘The Concentric Influences of Sol LeWitt: Foundations, Pivots and Place’ positions Australia at the centre of an ambitious global dialogue on conceptual art, influence and the circulation of ideas. Instigated and directed by Dr Irene Barberis, the project demonstrates how Australian scholarship and curatorial innovation can actively shape international discourse surrounding one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century.

@annewilson7705
@sarahduyshart
irenebarberis1

@m.collective.dance
@chimenesteeleprior
@yourheartisyouroyster
@ariannamarchiori

@rmitgalleries
@deakinphotography

Supported by @deakinuniversity Faculty of Arts and Education publication funding.

Viarco 2

Carbon & Graphite on Paper

76 x 57cm

Residency at Viarco, João da Madeira, Portugal (2019)

Dance Vertical View

‘Dance: Vertical View’ is a collaborative response to the original landmark artwork ‘Dance’ (1979) by Philip Glass, Sol LeWitt and Lucinda Childs, as part of ‘The Concentric Influences of Sol LeWitt: Foundations, Pivots and Place’.

Choreography, Production & Video Co-direction: Anne Scott Wilson
Sound & Music Composition: Sarah Duyshart
Architectonic Gridwork & Video Co-direction: Irene Barberis

Dancers: M.Collective

Photos are from the live performance of the dancers within the installation at RMIT Gallery on 12 June 2026.

Exhibition runs: 05 Jun 2026 - 29 Aug 2026
RMIT Gallery | 344 Swanston St Melbourne

‘The Concentric Influences of Sol LeWitt: Foundations, Pivots and Place’ positions Australia at the centre of an ambitious global dialogue on conceptual art, influence and the circulation of ideas. Instigated and directed by Dr Irene Barberis, the project demonstrates how Australian scholarship and curatorial innovation can actively shape international discourse surrounding one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century.

@annewilson7705
@sarahduyshart
irenebarberis1

@m.collective.dance
@chimenesteeleprior
@yourheartisyouroyster
@ariannamarchiori

@rmitgalleries
@deakinphotography

Supported by @deakinuniversity Faculty of Arts and Education publication funding.

Finalist TBWDP - Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize, UK

2024-2025

‘Sounding Bodies’, Charcoal and pen on paper, 40 × 40cm, 2024.

Oil on Linen

1m x 1.2m

Listening - amidst the workmanship of Victorian-era shipbuilders who constructed the curved, iron-ribbed truss system of the Royal Albert Hall. After liaising with what felt like every theatre rigger in London, I finally had the privilege of researching the corona in person, the domed crown of the RAH. Reminiscent of an upper forest canopy, a confluence of sounds emanated from rehearsals, filtering through the fluted aluminium ceiling below, while the traffic hummed beyond the glass roof above. Managing to peek down into the vast acoustic concert chasm, I saw tonnes of speakers elegantly suspended via pulleys and chain hoists, grasping onto the wrought-iron roof - once transported by horse and cart from Manchester, to be reassembled in London. What an amazing day! Thank you @royalalberthall

Research

Finalist TBWDP - Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize, UK 2025-2026,

‘Structural Score’, Pen on paper, 17 x 17cm, 2025.

Shift Beneath

Future Now 2014, The Substation Gallery, Newport, Melbourne, Australia

(Scroll down for film documentation)

  ‘Shift Beneath’ was a site-responsive appropriation of ‘Shift’ (2013), in response to the architecture of a decommissioned electrical substation built at the turn of the twentieth century. Whirring around dozens of pulleys, this line coursed throughout the building's one hundred year old brick foundations, typically concealed from the public. Prohibited to venture beneath, viewers physically crouched at a tunnel threshold, experiencing the frenetic yet meditative flux of this rectilinear spatial surveying. At a single point in its journey, the line pierced the boards of the floor above, extending vertically to touch the building's ceiling, then returning to course and rotate beneath the antiquated architectural mass. Sounds from this haunting yet peaceful hidden installation, were later integrated into a spatial acoustic score which toured Victoria, Australia as part of the annual award exhibition of VCA honours graduates. 

through

Debut X, Blindside Gallery, Melbourne, 2014

Three level lines shoot through the gallery ceiling architecture. Out of reach, these subtle lines at first hang unnoticed, until the noticeable yielding of the building and its fittings to their piercing absorb command. 

'Field 2', (mixed media, 1.2 x1.2m) 

Larynx

25 x 25 cm

Ink on Paper

Soundscape for Sift

Composed from onsite field recordings taken from the old Brunswick Brickworks and the Brunswick Town Hall

Hyoid 2019

Bronze, leather, chord.

Dimensions variable

drawing studies

Series of spatial drawing studies.

These architectural sketches are from a series studying structural components, focusing on suspended enclaves and vaults out of reach. Other drawings progressively map and lay down projection lines, preoccupied with describing space and the passage of bodies through architecture. Drawing lines whilst capturing sounds amalgamated these space-articulating mediums. Vibration interests the artist as a threshold between the material and immaterial. Focusing on architecture shifted the artist's interest regarding the unseen, to include unassuming built spaces; the loft, the stumps, what lies behind the walls.

ear-iron

brass and gold

15 x 15 cm

Dyson Gallery, Royal College of Art, (London, 2019)

‘Viarco 1’

Carbon & Graphite on Paper

77 x 57cm

Residency at Viarco, João da Madeira, Portugal (2019)

Hull

Ink on Paper

25 x 25cm

Shaft

Review - Does it Matter?, Kings ARI Gallery, Melbourne, 2013

A taut line extended throughout the gallery space from one wall to the other, pushing against the room's architectural boundaries. Passing through an existing partition in the room, and a suspended constructed black wood framed mesh square, this level line pierced whatever lay in its path.

Signal Tendere 

Place of Assembly, Melbourne International Arts Festival, 2012

Drawings executed on location in Rome and Florence, Italy.

Viarco 6

Carbon on Paper

58 x 42cm

Residency at Viarco, João da Madeira, Portugal (2019)

Drawn on location at the The Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo at Piazza del Popolo, Rome, Italy

Pencil on Paper