“In Death”
Campbell Rothnie and Tom Penney
7 Apr → 13 May 2017
In Death as in life some things can seem different. We are here to let you know that nobody should feel bad for dying. We accept you for who you are no matter what state you find yourself in. Here, we can give you better access to life as you once knew it. We can help you become a more active member of your community and a more engaged citizen from the comfort of your own place of mortality. We can give you options and strategies for leaving the house even once you have been cremated. We look forward to further assisting you however we can, and we anticipate hearing from you when the time comes.
In Death is a collaborative installation on the institutional posturing of good will in the public sector. Participating in its systems can be a perpetual affective loop that continually reinforces then threatens the capacities of the body at a rapid pace. Bodies are quantified, measured and understood through beaurocracies and their preordained categories. This is affirmed by an increasing distance between policy and viable livability as a result of said policy.
Campbell Rothnie is an artist-writer who works with the very last remnants of modernity and corporality to consider what our lives will mean in the schemes of the 21st and 22nd century. Their work investigates how we currently interface with the external world using our bodies, and how we might in the future. They endeavor to document causal influx and decline in sensibilities and their associations with money and power.
Tom Penney's art media practice involves 3D imaging, games technology and digital design as well as traditional techniques. He has shown work at venues including Slopes Gallery, The Substation, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Metro Arts, Little Woods Gallery and Federation Square. Tom previously worked at Metaverse Makeovers, an augmented reality fashion company, as well as teaching art and design at Curtin and Monash Universities.