On display 24/7 from 9-29 November
DESIGN Canberra Festival Hub
City Walk, Canberra ACT

The DESIGN Canberra 2020 signature installation is Hannah Quinlivan’s Desiderium.

Quinlivan’s thoughtful and complex site-specific spatial drawing installation has multiple layers. From a large-scale, suspended 3D work made of acrylic, steel, LED lights and wire, to drawing directly onto the surrounding glass, and working with acclaimed classical vocalists for a special ticketed performance.

Desiderium is an ephemeral spatial drawing and vocal performance that educes what Ben Anderson terms ‘the affective atmosphere’ of life after periods of crisis. It responds to the red summer with which the year 2020 began, the subsequent health and economic crisis, and the fissures they have riven in our collective mood. This year has brought the realisation that the slow unravelling of our ecology has gained irreversible momentum. At the same time, the viral outbreak has compelled us to face with sober senses the fragility of our once taken for granted ways of living. After a year of grief and fear, this artwork asks its audience to take time to pause. To listen and hold close our ardent longing for the futures we once possessed but that dissolved into smoke, and to find the fortitude to care for each other through the uncertain future.

The installation will be installed at the City Walk entry to Monaro Mall, drawing the viewers’ attention to the iconic building’s elegant arched canopies, slim pillars and the Frank Hinder glass mosaic (1963).