3. Fiona Davies and Patricia Prociv

Neither thrived, 2008

Patricia Prociv and Fiona Davies work collaboratively calling themselves Artists (re) Interpreting History.

They have worked as installation artists, both as individuals and as a team, for over 13 years. In that time they have undertaken a number of projects outside of the gallery that question past usages of sites, and re layer in histories particularly those not often told. Some of their projects in the Parramatta area include Lines in the Landscape, Parramatta Park, May/June 2008, Back of House Old Government House Parramatta, April/May 2003 Sisters and Spinsters, the Misses Swann of Elizabeth Farm, Elizabeth Farm, Rosehill, Sydney, Sep/Oct 1998.

In this work Patricia Prociv and Fiona Davies will layer fragments of the oral histories and the written records from the colonial period of history of this site. They will focus on the idea of misunderstanding – misunderstandings about what was food, overlaid with misunderstandings about concepts of ownership and finally the use of food and the control of access to food as a weapon or means of control. The words used will not be theirs but will be the words of those who can tell the stories.

These fragments of stories will literally fall between the cracks in the stairs and on the wooden walkway over the dammed river. These are points of transition where passage changes things forever. This work can be seen in the contemporary context where pressures on the supply and prices of food have lead to protest in both developing and developed countries and riots in West Africa.