“we sit comfortably in silence together”
Joy Zhou
17 Nov → 20 Jan 2025
A site-responsive work by Joy Zhou unfolds in the West Space Window over Summer.
we sit comfortably in silence together forms part of Joy’s ongoing series of process-driven works grounded in active listening in public space. Joy considers the affective power of spaces, and their ability to direct our movement, interactions, and subjectivity.
Viewing the West Space Window as an in-between space, we sit comfortably in silence together is an attempt to negotiate and re-contextualise the boundaries between the Window, gallery and office, blurring the line between (what, and who, is) 'inside' and 'outside'.
This work stems from Joy’s experience as an emerging artist and weekly visitor to West Space as a volunteer (2022-present). Activated by spatial and sonic intervention, recorded on site over many months, Joy looks to subvert the assumed authority of the organisation, subtly transforming West Space from a space that presents to us, to an object itself, for us to perceive.
"My practice is an accumulation of observations and interactions with people at different stages in their careers, from a range of backgrounds.
I’ve been thinking about the idea of ‘success’, and asking myself, how do we want to position ourselves in the arts ecology? Maybe it is about sitting comfortably with the ambiguity, and feeling the discomfort lingering in silence… until we hear something reverberate back… " — Joy Zhou
Supported by City of Yarra through their Annual Grants Program.
Programs
Activations on Fridays, 3 → 6pm
Joy Zhou presents evolving sonic interventions on Friday afternoons. Come and sit with us.
Blindside B-SIDE RADIO, Wed 11 Dec, 4pm
To celebrate their 20th anniversary, Blindside turned their gallery into a live broadcasting studio. They presented a program amplifying the local arts community, with conversations, sound-works, readings, performances and experiments.
Joy and West Space Curator Sebastian Henry-Jones discussed how this work came about, and shared their favourite artworks that take the sound of silence as a starting point.
Joy Zhou is an artist, designer and producer in Naarm/Melbourne. Joy works responsively to their surroundings through sonic, spatial and socially-engaged intervention, interrogating and subverting power dynamics experienced within spaces and between people through queering, embodied and relational gestures.
