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Chapel of the Separate Prison, Port Arthur, 2009-ongoing
24 channel audio, 24 speakers
listen to excerpt (2'25")
About the work
Rewards of Silence was commissioned for the chapel of the Separate Prison at Port Arthur in Tasmania. In this 1850s prison, a new kind of prison architecture delivered a regime of separation, solitude and silence.
In the Enlightenment world view of the time, the extreme isolation of prisoners in their individuals cells was meant to provide monastic, self-reflective conditions, away from the bad influences of fellow convicts. From today's perspective, we struggle to comprehend this as a regime designed with good intentions, aimed at silence and separation fostering a way to the light of God.
Convicts were hooded for the short journey to the chapel until they reached their individually partitioned stalls. Once in position, and unable to view their fellow inmates, the convicts took part in the chapel service which was their only opportunity to raise their voices each week.
Rewards of Silence presents a congregation of ragged male voices singing hymns in unison with each individual voice emerging from an individual stall. The voices are untrained, with varying abilities to hold a tune: some sing sweetly, others rather roughly. As we move about and listen, we hear signs of age, youthfulness, physical effort and resentment.
Here in the chapel, the rigid structure of physical separation, amidst the mingling of voices raised together in song, takes on a chilling dimension.
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to the singers from the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Choir who modified their usual pristine singing style for this project
Clergymen's voices: Stanley McGeagh, Michael Cahill
Project team: Jo Lyngcoln,
conservation manager; Julia Clark, curator; Dr Peter Emmett, consulting curator; Tonkin Zulaikha Greer, architects; Aegres, sound system program and install.
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