Wall Drawing (Vesica Pisces)

Description:

Archie Barry’s performance Wall Drawing (Vescia Pisces) transformed the gallery into a site of resonance and inscription. Through lyrical hand movements, vocalizations, and the act of drawing directly onto the gallery wall with custom pencil press-on fingernails, Barry created a choreographed interplay of sound and gesture that privileged sensing over explanation. Two pre-recorded vocal tracks reverberated upward from speakers placed under the gallery floor, merging with Barry’s voice above to envelop the space in vibration.

The performance took inspiration from the life and writing of Reed Erickson (1917–1992)—an eccentric, influential, and unsettling figure in the history of trans organizing—and extended Barry’s video artwork Dream for Reed (2025) on display in their solo exhibition Try Keeping an Open Channel. Together, these works imagined a trans ontology of disembodiment, exploring perceptions and sensations of being out-of-body through sound, movement, and mark-making.

Presented with support from the Government of Canada, Creative Australia, the Jim Marks and Norman Macgeorge Travelling Scholarships (University of Melbourne), the Audain Foundation, and the Transgender Archives at the University of Victoria.