Join this hands-on banner-making workshop with artist Sonia Zymantas. Involuntary Memories explores the impact of overlooked language in regulated public spaces and how it can personally affect our own sense of vulnerability and belonging.
‘Involuntary memories’ are when our memory is easily triggered by moments in daily life, which in turn evokes an emotional response. This project focuses on the passive language that is seen and heard in public spaces that triggers involuntary memories or familiar emotional reactions. Language that is overlooked yet can have deeper meaning, nuanced language that is overlooked, played down and taken for granted, yet occupies our social spaces and interpersonal exchanges, shaping our identities.
Sonia Zymantas is a participatory artist whose practice is centred on activating public spaces with socially engaged art projects. She draws on particular sites and communities to highlight untold stories as a form of protest and social justice. Sonia’s curiosity with the overuse of passive language and modes of communication, inspires her to create projects that expose social narratives through text-based banners, posters, and multi-layered installations. By using familiar materials, colours and imagery, her work invites the audience to shift their perspective and ignite critical responses to ingrained societal norms.
This project is commissioned as part of Who’s Afraid of Public Space? public program call out where two new programs have been selected to activate the central commission Gathering Space: Ngargee Djeembana, an installation and gathering space in ACCA’s main exhibition hall developed by N’arweet Carolyn Briggs AM and Sarah Lynn Rees.
