Frances Barrett: Meatus

Frances Barrett’s much-anticipated exhibition Meatus, part of the celebrated series Suspended Moment: The Katthy Cavaliere Fellowship, opens Saturday, April 2, having been postponed since 2020 due to Melbourne’s prolonged pandemic-related lockdowns. 

Suspended Moment: The Katthy Cavaliere Fellowship is a suite of unique commissions, originally announced in 2018, to support Australian women artists working at the nexus of performance and installation. Drawing on her background in performance, curating and collaborative models of making, Frances Barrett has expanded the solo commissioning focus of the Fellowship to present new sonic compositions and live performances by multiple artists. Alongside a major sound installation by Barrett, developed in collaboration with Hayley Forward and Brian Fuata, Barrett has curated specially commissioned sound compositions by artists Nina Buchanan, Del Lumanta and Sione Teumohenga, as well as a series of incursions by Debris Facility Ltd, responding to the concept of Meatus. 

A “meatus” is an opening or passage leading to the interior of the body. Encompassing a range of sensations and functions, the plurality of meatus becomes a way for Barrett to explore a practice of listening that decentres the ear to activate the entire body, attuned to both conscious responses and unconscious intensities. 

Barrett has conceived of ACCA’s four galleries as an immersive environment of sound and light—a performative staging of the body, which bleeds and leaks, and into which the audience may enter to consider the physical, sensual and critical experience of listening. Meatus foregrounds the affective and relational dynamics of sound and listening to address the attendant and expanded possibilities of the body. 

Commissioning Curator Annika Kristensen has said “Meatus is a radical reimagining of the art gallery—transforming a space which traditionally presents visual experiences into a theatrical and enveloping environment in which sound becomes the primary object. It’s been a pleasure to work with Frances in her dual role as artist and curator to finally realise this ambitious project, now presented at a time when visitors can once again enjoy the embodied intensities of being within a physical gallery space.”

Live performance, Saturday, April 2, 2022, 11:30am–1:30pm with Frances Barrett, Brian Fuata, Hayley Forward, Nina Buchanan and Sione Teumohenga.

Suspended Moment: The Katthy Cavaliere Fellowship, named after the Italian-born Australian artist Katthy Cavaliere (1972–2012), is presented in partnership between the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), Melbourne; Carriageworks, Sydney; and the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), Hobart.

A project led by Frances Barrett with Nina Buchanan, Debris Facility Pty Ltd., Hayley Forward, Brian Fuata, Del Lumanta and Sione Teumohenga. 

Commissioning Curator: Annika Kristensen