The City of Ladies

Materials: Camera Obscura Caravan and installation including pink elastic, tent pegs, dry point etchings. Performance including, Claire Conroy, Marty Jay, Yul Scarf.

A camera obscura caravan was situated within an allegorical city in a paddock in Kandos. It is based on The Book of the City of Ladies, a 15th century feminist text by Christine de Pizan. The City of Ladies could be moved through, inhabited as well as viewed upside down and in reverse from inside the camera obscura. The work is further documented in a series of four drypoint etchings.

The city works as a metaphor for the ever developing and evolving project of feminism. The City of Ladies continues to be built in the 21st century with communication and collaboration. The performers included female identifying, male identifying and non gender identifying friends. 

The installation incorporated a 30 m long anamorphic distortion of  the 15th century allegorical city with pink elastic. The drawing which was distorted and abstracted in the paddock could be viewed in correct perspective in 9 x 9 cm scale inside the camera obscura.

Photo documentation of performance by Freya Ververis.