Site specific installation for the group exhibition 'Domain: a contested landscape'
10 Days on the Island 2013
Books, vinyl lettering, sound track, battery operated candles, bookmarks
Dimensions variable
The Library 2013
The Library reflects on the early history of the University of Tasmania's Christ College, located in Domain House from 1879-1885 under the Wardenship of Reverend Thomas Thistle. The College was originally established with the aim of preparing young men for university and the priesthood and, at the time, its library was the only collection in the Diocese that promoted theological and classical studies.
The installation honours books discarded from the library and references the five original classification headings used in its first catalogue: Divinity, Classics, History, Physics & Mathematics and Miscellaneous Literature. The voice of John F C Richards reads Horace, Book 1, Ode 11.
The present Catalogue will in some measure serve to show the resources and deficiencies of the only public Library as yet established in the Diocese of Tasmania, for the promotion of classical and theological studies, as well as the more general purposes of literature. Those who are kindly disposed to augment its acquisitions will not forget how much the value of a useful work is enhanced by placing it where it will be carefully preserved, and be always within the reach of a considerable number of the rising generation of Tasmania, who have constant access to the Library. Nor can anything more effectually neutralize the evils of a remote distance from the centres of the literary movement in the Old World, than the unreserved enjoyment of an ample store-house of learning.
Catalogue of the Christ College Library in the Diocese of Tasmania, Preface, January, 1848
Downloads & Links
Tasmanian College of the Arts webpage about the exhibition.