Deej Fabyc:
Gender, Space, and Forensic Biography

Gender, space, and forensic biography are the three themes that British-born, Australian artist Deej Fabyc has crisscrossed and crafted together in her performative installations over her 15-year career. She aims to interrogate the viewer with a range of work that is often demanding, aggressively thought-provoking, and sometimes shocking in its raw content.

Fabyc has performed and exhibited her work in 15 solo exhibitions in galleries and public spaces across Australia, including the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne (1997). She has also participated in numerous group shows in Australia, Europe, and the U.S., at institutions including Whitechapel Gallery, London (2005), the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid (2003), and El Museo del Barrio in New York (2004). She is a Senior Lecturer of Video Installation and Performance at Newport School of Art, Media and Design at University of Wales, Newport. Having established herself as an artist in Australia, Fabyc returned to London in 2001, where she now resides and operates an artist-run space, Elastic Residence, in an 18th-century building in Whitechapel.

R.J. Preece: What exactly do you mean by “gender, space, and forensic biography” when referring to your work?

Deej Fabyc. And she watched, 2003–05. Forensic performance and mixed-media installation using life-sized fiberglass double of the artist.

Deej Fabyc: By “gender,” I mean how we as people interrelate and create dialogues between each other via our gender. This, of course, is mediated through our personal and cultural perceptions. By “space,” I mean architectural, political, and social spaces. This also relates to my interest in surveillance in private and public space. And with “forensic biography,” I’m looking at things like crime shows, how they present death and medical procedures, for example. This collides with a more personal experience with death and people’s various experiences with medicine, including psychiatry. Perhaps that’s a bit complicated, but my work always plays off two or three of these main themes. When people get to know my work, they’ll notice that I’m often having conversations with my dead mother. But it’s not always so serious, sometimes it’s a bit Woody Allen.

R.J. Preece: Does the padded white room performance/installation relate to a personal experience?

Deej Fabyc: Yes. In 1989, my mother was found dead in the next-door neighbor’s garden. She was still young, 51, but her entire adult life had been plagued by mental illness caused by a tumor. I spent many hours of my childhood visiting my mother in various institutions. Obviously this had a profound effect on me. In this performative installation, I spoke to my dead mother through the site of the padded cell. I told her that I forgave her for things from my childhood that I now know, as an adult, were beyond her control. But at the end of the day, the work is about a rite of passage into adulthood with one’s parents.

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