12 Oct - 5 Nov 1995

STERILIZER Anne Graham

The installation "Sterilizer" had as its central concerns those of the institution, work, and women, and considered the complex relationships and expressions of power and politics in their relations and operations. The making of work that directly addresses the social and political has been central to the artists work. "Sterilizer" specifically referred to the institution of the woman's prison and the role that work has within the prison as part of the regime of 'correction', the work, in this case sewing having a role that is both economic and social. One wall of the gallery was hung with gowns made to the same pattern as the medical garments made by inmates at Mulawa Women's Prison. The artist however changed the original colour from that of a medical green to white. The activity and site of the sewing is placed in a web of association and linkage. Other institutions were suggested: those of the hospital and the asylum. In a statement the artist said: "The Mulawa and Norma Parker gaols in New South Wales also provide the equivalent of sweated labour, where women earn the sum of twelve dollars a week churning out surgical gowns for the NSW hospital system. It is paradoxical that women in the most powerless situation, deprived of their liberty, should be employed making garments for the most powerful controllers of bodies, surgeons. The wearers of these habits are permitted extraordinary license under the protection of their profession. Medical prescriptions (sedatives) are utilized as the main means of containment for women in custody. Women in gaol are often presumed to be 'bad or mad'. It is only in fiction that they become heroes like their male counterparts"