Mirror
New Views on Photography
State Library Victoria, 2023
Mirror brought together over 140 photographs from the State Collection alongside creative responses from emerging and established Victorian storytellers. I treated accessibility as a design constraint from day one, and it shaped the whole visitor journey, from documentary images to deeply personal ones.
Press: The Guardian, TimeOut, Arts Hub
One of the respondents to the show was Auslan poet Walter Kadiki, who also contributed as a consultant for the inclusion of Auslan elements in the space. Through many sessions with curators and designers, a brief was developed for full-body 1:1 Auslan interpretation embedded directly into the projected content. Deaf and hard of hearing visitors could follow every piece, and the signed performances became one of the highlights of the show.
With Amaze, Victoria's autism organisation, I reviewed the whole exhibition and developed sensory maps and social scripts. Instead of the usual low/high sensory rating museums use, we introduced three levels of information.
Mirror was designed around two spatial experiences. The main gallery showed the commissioned responses as large-scale projections with a spatial sound system. In four cube-shaped cinema rooms, 140 photographs were projected onto two angled walls: on one side the photograph, on the other how it is stored in the archive, alongside its catalogue information. The spatial concept was developed with 3D designers to carry that idea from brief through to installation.
- Curators: Linda Short, Jade Hadfield, Kate Rhodes
- 3D Design: Baracco+Wright
- Exhibition Experience Design: Jorge Arreola
- 2D Design: Ziga Testen
- Exhibition Producer: Nickks Hertzog
- Video Production: Silky Jazz / Antuong Nguyen
- Exhibitions Manager: Michelle Moo
- Auslan Consultant: Walter Kadiki