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| Human rights day: installation invites public to open hearts for offshore detention | |
| (3 days later) | |
| This week Sydney artist Penny Ryan received 32 handwritten and hand-drawn messages in the mail. Scrawled on scraps of paper and cloth, they came from detainees being held on Manus Island and Nauru. | This week Sydney artist Penny Ryan received 32 handwritten and hand-drawn messages in the mail. Scrawled on scraps of paper and cloth, they came from detainees being held on Manus Island and Nauru. |
| “We are suffering every minute of the day,” read one. | “We are suffering every minute of the day,” read one. |
| “We just asking for save. We had enough torturing,” read another. | “We just asking for save. We had enough torturing,” read another. |
| “Manus and Nauru is killing us one by one, physically and mentally.” | “Manus and Nauru is killing us one by one, physically and mentally.” |
| “Why am I in prison.” | “Why am I in prison.” |
| When asked how she felt reading each one for the first time, Ryan grimaces. “They brought tears, obviously,” she says. “There’s something really powerful about getting these. Suddenly you’re talking about real people, individuals we don’t get to see.” | When asked how she felt reading each one for the first time, Ryan grimaces. “They brought tears, obviously,” she says. “There’s something really powerful about getting these. Suddenly you’re talking about real people, individuals we don’t get to see.” |
| In the past six months Ryan has held more than 45 workshops in Sydney and Canberra, teaching more than 400 people – ranging in age from five to 94 – to sculpt human hearts out of clay. There are now 1,468 hearts in total: one for each man, woman and child the government said were being held on Manus Island and Nauru at the time her project began. | In the past six months Ryan has held more than 45 workshops in Sydney and Canberra, teaching more than 400 people – ranging in age from five to 94 – to sculpt human hearts out of clay. There are now 1,468 hearts in total: one for each man, woman and child the government said were being held on Manus Island and Nauru at the time her project began. |
| As she accrued more and more hearts – painstakingly crafted at workshops, where 15 to 20 people at a time talked about the issue and their connection to it – she began displaying them at a series of interactive installations, titled The Confined Hearts Project. | As she accrued more and more hearts – painstakingly crafted at workshops, where 15 to 20 people at a time talked about the issue and their connection to it – she began displaying them at a series of interactive installations, titled The Confined Hearts Project. |
| Open Hearts – which invited participants to unwrap 400 hearts – premiered in June for the Chippendale New World Art prize; and Heart Awakening, in September, invited people to wash 300 of the hearts in a ritual cleansing at the National Art School. | Open Hearts – which invited participants to unwrap 400 hearts – premiered in June for the Chippendale New World Art prize; and Heart Awakening, in September, invited people to wash 300 of the hearts in a ritual cleansing at the National Art School. |
| On Saturday 10 December, Human Rights Day, the project continues with its third event. For Opening Hearts, all 1,468 muslin-wrapped hearts – most inscribed with messages from their maker – will be installed in a spiral formation next to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, at Circular Quay. | On Saturday 10 December, Human Rights Day, the project continues with its third event. For Opening Hearts, all 1,468 muslin-wrapped hearts – most inscribed with messages from their maker – will be installed in a spiral formation next to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, at Circular Quay. |
| The public will be invited to walk into the spiral’s centre, unwrap the muslin covering a heart, place it back down, and walk out again holding onto the fabric – onto which they may write a message. | The public will be invited to walk into the spiral’s centre, unwrap the muslin covering a heart, place it back down, and walk out again holding onto the fabric – onto which they may write a message. |
| “I’d been looking a lot at what ritual can do to help people step out of their ordinary lives for even a moment, to reflect on something,” she says. “Giving them an act to do allows that sort of ritual.” | “I’d been looking a lot at what ritual can do to help people step out of their ordinary lives for even a moment, to reflect on something,” she says. “Giving them an act to do allows that sort of ritual.” |
| When Ryan met two people who would be visiting Manus Island and Nauru, she asked if they could explain Detained Hearts to the detainees, with the hopes some would write messages to Australia to be included in the project. While the artist is keeping the originals safe for a future work, photographic reproductions will be on display at Circular Quay. | When Ryan met two people who would be visiting Manus Island and Nauru, she asked if they could explain Detained Hearts to the detainees, with the hopes some would write messages to Australia to be included in the project. While the artist is keeping the originals safe for a future work, photographic reproductions will be on display at Circular Quay. |
| Ryan has long been interested in socially engaged art which involves and in some cases galvanises participants; work by Jeremy Deller and Mierle Laderman Ukeles, for example. | Ryan has long been interested in socially engaged art which involves and in some cases galvanises participants; work by Jeremy Deller and Mierle Laderman Ukeles, for example. |
| The public event is about taking people out of their everyday life, and connecting them to the real people affected by the Australian government’s policy. “Walking in, stooping down, picking up a heart – it’s a process ... Most people report being slightly shocked by the fact that each heart is so heavy. The ceramic is fragile. It’s about taking it out from the [political] debate, and back into a sense of human-ness. And taking time to get out of your ordinary life and letting yourself feel something,” she says. | The public event is about taking people out of their everyday life, and connecting them to the real people affected by the Australian government’s policy. “Walking in, stooping down, picking up a heart – it’s a process ... Most people report being slightly shocked by the fact that each heart is so heavy. The ceramic is fragile. It’s about taking it out from the [political] debate, and back into a sense of human-ness. And taking time to get out of your ordinary life and letting yourself feel something,” she says. |
| “My own frustrations with some contemporary art have been about the lack of engagement around emotion, feeling, ritual. [I’m interested in] trying to create situations where you take time out from what is really an overwhelming issue.” | “My own frustrations with some contemporary art have been about the lack of engagement around emotion, feeling, ritual. [I’m interested in] trying to create situations where you take time out from what is really an overwhelming issue.” |
| For Ryan, and for many of those who took part in her workshop, the plight of refugees in Australia and beyond is so immense it can be paralysing. “As soon as you start thinking about 64 million people on the move because of conflict and war, and we’re here in the land of plenty – how do I make a difference?” | For Ryan, and for many of those who took part in her workshop, the plight of refugees in Australia and beyond is so immense it can be paralysing. “As soon as you start thinking about 64 million people on the move because of conflict and war, and we’re here in the land of plenty – how do I make a difference?” |
| Her workshops opened with an hour of discussion around the issue, before she talked participants through six easy steps to make a 3D anatomical heart (“not so easy, to be honest!”). In each workshop, she says, the same conversations kept coming up. | Her workshops opened with an hour of discussion around the issue, before she talked participants through six easy steps to make a 3D anatomical heart (“not so easy, to be honest!”). In each workshop, she says, the same conversations kept coming up. |
| “There’s a sense of basic powerlessness and shame about Australia’s reaction, a sense of privilege ... ‘I got here’ or ‘my parents got here’ or ‘my grandparents got here, often as refugees or post war, and we didn’t have any of this. We got absorbed into the country’.” | “There’s a sense of basic powerlessness and shame about Australia’s reaction, a sense of privilege ... ‘I got here’ or ‘my parents got here’ or ‘my grandparents got here, often as refugees or post war, and we didn’t have any of this. We got absorbed into the country’.” |
| Using their hands to make a clay heart, and to inscribe it with a message, gave the participants a way to channel those feelings, a kind of catharsis, she says. For many, it gave them an entry point to action too. | Using their hands to make a clay heart, and to inscribe it with a message, gave the participants a way to channel those feelings, a kind of catharsis, she says. For many, it gave them an entry point to action too. |
| “The vast majority of people – I’d say 80% who came – had never taken any political action,” Ryan says. “They felt bad about [the issue], but they’d remained largely silent; might make a casual comment, but that was as far as they went.” | “The vast majority of people – I’d say 80% who came – had never taken any political action,” Ryan says. “They felt bad about [the issue], but they’d remained largely silent; might make a casual comment, but that was as far as they went.” |
| These workshops, she says, was not only the first time many had gathered in a group of people who felt the same way, but the first time many had taken a form of action – symbolic as it may be. | These workshops, she says, was not only the first time many had gathered in a group of people who felt the same way, but the first time many had taken a form of action – symbolic as it may be. |
| “Roughly 30-40 people came back for multiple workshops ... they could just come and know that they were coming to a place where there was an acceptance [of the same idea]” | “Roughly 30-40 people came back for multiple workshops ... they could just come and know that they were coming to a place where there was an acceptance [of the same idea]” |
| From the event itself on Saturday, she’s hoping the public approaches it with openness. “I want people to actually let themselves be moved by it. Let themselves actually feel something, for a moment. That’s my biggest hope,” she says. “They might not necessarily take any direct action, but at least they won’t be part of a passive violence group that’s letting all of this happen without taking some form of action.” | From the event itself on Saturday, she’s hoping the public approaches it with openness. “I want people to actually let themselves be moved by it. Let themselves actually feel something, for a moment. That’s my biggest hope,” she says. “They might not necessarily take any direct action, but at least they won’t be part of a passive violence group that’s letting all of this happen without taking some form of action.” |
| • Opening Hearts, the third part of Penny Ryan’s The Confined Hearts Project, takes place on Saturday 10 December in the lawns next to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney | • Opening Hearts, the third part of Penny Ryan’s The Confined Hearts Project, takes place on Saturday 10 December in the lawns next to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney |