The works in Unrest explored ways to visualise tension, struggle and disruption as daily forces in opposition to freedom, safety and comfort.  Street photography served as a rapid means to compile a personal archive of images that documented sites of uprising, unrest, and impact, encountered on the streets of Paris in 2019. These photographs and subsequent artworks refer to sites where small and large acts of resistance, dissent, and unrest were observed.   

The preliminary research for this body of work was undertaken during a three-month residency at Cite International des Arts in Paris. It was before the COVID-19 pandemic, and there were many homeless people living in makeshift homes and tents throughout the picturesque Le Marais district. It was also the time of the weekly Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) protests. 

I produced a photographic survey of the streets documenting barricades, discarded rubbish, street furniture and public monuments draped with banners, flags and barrier tape. These urban surfaces had been embellished, attacked, and bore visible traces of impact.  I photographed the hand-written cardboard signs of the homeless, protestors, workers and refugees and compiled many photographs to document my observations of this time. A small selection of those photographs follows and these have either informed the artworks exhibited, or were incorporated as elements within the works presented in Unrest.

My aim to expand the act of documentary photography through extreme manipulations of printed images in combination with reclaimed commonplace materials sought to arouse a sense of place where upheaval, protest and battle have occurred, and where the lives of tourists, residents, homeless and displaced persons intersected.

This project was undertaken in France and Australia, and was supported by the School of Creative Arts and Media, University of Tasmania through the award of the Rosamond McCulloch Studio Residency at Cite International des Arts and the Marie Edwards Traveling Scholarship.