Archie Barry
“Wall drawing (I know you are out there somewhere)”

As part of the exhibition Stranger than fiction, a new performance by Archie Barry unfolded across a pale yellow wall.

Archie's voice echoed in harmony with two humming voices emanating from the gallery walls, at the height of the artists' mouth.

Their hands adorned in fingernails fabricated from multicoloured pencils, Archie sang as they made marks, letters, words and shapes that push and pull the written word apart.

Wall drawing (I know you are out there somewhere) references an important, eccentric and troubling figure in the history of trans organising, Reed Erickson (1917-1992), and forms part of the artist's ongoing research around a trans ontology of disembodiment, perceptions and sensations of being out-of-body.

Kenneth Suico captured the thirty minute performance in video. Here on Offsite is a glimpse into the reverberating, emotive, aural experience shared with audiences.

Ahmed Coshnow captured what remained on the walls.

"Archie's embodied mark making and language materialised on the wall, charged with their hum. Archie sang in harmony with themselves, as their fingers traced the wall, playing it like an instrument.

Before and after this moment, Archie’s presence is held by a deep hum emanating from within the gallery walls. Gently reverberating at the height of Archie’s mouth, the artist recorded their voice by singing directly into a hollow plasterboard wall, with a microphone positioned in the next room." — Joanna Kitto, On storytelling and subversion