MADA
  • Chewton Underground - Miner's Cottage
  • Chewton Underground - Gold Lift
  • Chewton Underground
Domenica Presa
Bachelor of Interior Architecture
domenica.presa@gmail.com

Situated in the gold mining town of Chewton, my sites include two miners cottages and Wattle Gully Mine. Of primary concern is how the geomorphology of the abandoned mine can be reconceived as a contemporary exhibition and performance space. Here, the artist becomes the brisure [hinge] between social isolation, communal identity and place making. I am exploring the concept of the parergon as an active framing device neither fixed nor stable. Synchronically and diachronically the parergon appears through transitions of historical and contemporary traces from the natural and built environment.

The program addresses designing gallery/performance space, accommodation and studio space. The art, performances and literature experienced by visitors to this site, frames and mediates a sense of history and a sense of place.

Thus, the site facilitates the brisure – the gold hinge between artist, man-made and natural environment, identity and recognition.