Ref.
Exhibited at Caves Gallery, 2022
Exhibited at Wangaratta Contemporary Textile Awards, 2023

Ref. is a large, square beading, that consists of 52,000 24 karat gold beads, weighs 300 grams and includes 18 lines of coded language. The text written within the artwork is sampled from emails sent and received over a period of two years, from direct correspondence between myself and institutions in both the legal and healthcare sectors. The title (Ref.) and themes within the work hint to multiple meanings – referral, reference, referee, refusal. This artwork has been made to try and understand how institutions use language (specifically emails) as a tool to gate-keep, refer on, wrap-up and maintain collegiality in shutting down complaints.

‘Ref.’ draws attention to the ways in which people’s stories or lines of enquiry are interrupted, fragmented and drawn out through the referral system. It is also about how generalised and hegemonic communication creates faultless paper trials, sets the institution free from responsibility, whilst in tandem, dehumanizes the individual they are referring to.