Rhythmic Disturbance: An Exploration of how Media Cycles Shape and Interrupt the Lived Experience of Traumatic Grief (2022).
Rhythmic Disturbance was developed for Drey's capstone project while completing her undergraduate degree at RMIT University in 2022. The project responded to Drey's lived experience of traumatic grief following the death of her cousin in 2020. This shocking incident attracted an enormous amount of media and public attention and took place during the height of the of the COVID-19 lockdowns; exacerbating isolation and access to usual grieving rituals. The private grieving process continued to be repeatedly and unexpectedly interrupted due to relentless media coverage of court proceedings related to the incident.
The media impact led Drey to a line of enquiry regarding 'death [as] a theatre for the living' (Seltzer, cited in Smith 2022:29). The public fascination with tragedy and the macabre is filtered through sensationalised headlines and media theatrics. Drey used self-portraiture in the style of 'mugshot' photography, referencing the powerlessness of involuntary exposure. The portraits were repeatedly glitched and distorted using digital and analogue print processes; demonstrating the media's persistent interference with the capacity to grieve and heal. Akin to the traumatised body, evidence of the disruption is embedded in the work.
The portraits were taken into the public sphere and pasted up around Melbourne. This was a performative action, Drey reasserted herself into a space where she had felt silenced and disempowered. The ephemerality of the paste ups comments on the disposable nature of the news cycle; new day = new victim. The posters remained vulnerable to interference from the elements and the public until they naturally deteriorated and faded away.
Reference:
Smith, R (2022) The Spectacle of Criminal Justice: Mass Media and the Criminal Trial, Emerald Publishing, United Kingdom.
Exhibited:
Fine Art Graduate Exhibition (2022) RMIT University School of Art Melbourne VIC.
Inter-print-ations (2024) Rubicon Gallery Melbourne VIC.