Diana Baker Smith
Falling Towards Another (A Score for the Void)
2024
Live performance, installation and single-channel video

Commissioned by Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, for the 2024 Judy Wheeler Commission.

Falling Towards Another (A Score for the Void) explores the multiple lives of buildings and the histories embedded in their surfaces, structures and rhythms. Developed in response to Perth Institute of Contemporary Art (PICA), housed in the former Perth Boys’ School building, the work draws on the site’s colonial history and its transformation into a contemporary art institution.

At the centre of the project is a large-scale graphic score, painted directly onto the mezzanine walls, that maps former architectural features including windows, archways and doorways now bricked over but still faintly visible. Drawing on archival plans and photographs, the score uses lines, ellipses and marks of omission to trace the spatial absences and material changes embedded in the site, and the ways institutions shape what is remembered and obscured.

Developed in collaboration with dancers Emma Fishwick and Isabella Stone, choreographer Sofie Burgoyne, and composer Jane Sheldon, the score was activated through live performance and a video work titled Falling Towards / Flying Away. Taking its title from Karl Marx’s description of bodies “constantly falling towards one another and at the same time constantly flying away,” the work follows a logic of tension and return. Through choreography, sound and moving image, it considers how colonial histories continue to move through contemporary institutions and the spaces they inhabit.

Work Credits
Dancers: Emma Fishwick, Isabella Stone
Choreography: Diana Baker Smith, Sofie Burgoyne
Composition and vocal performance: Jane Sheldon
Cinematography: Edwin Sitt
Sound mix: Bob Scott
Colour grading: Justin Tran
Video editor: Diana Baker Smith
Edit assistant: Eloise Martin-Jones
Textile consultation: Leah Giblin
Design assistance: Zoe Gojnich and Kate Polkinghorne
Clothing: Kowtow

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The 2024 Judy Wheeler Commission is made possible by the generosity of the Simpson Family.

Installation view and performance, Diana Baker Smith, Falling Towards Another (A Score for the Void), Judy Wheeler Commission, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, 2024. Photo: Daniel Grant.