Archives can function in ways that are harmful to the individuals and communities they represent. They are sites of bureaucratic violence where “decisions are made, knowledge is created, and power is exerted in ways that affect the everyday lives of citizens”.[1]
From family albums, legal proceedings, memorial, and art—join artist Raphaela Rosella alongside several of her co-creators as they discuss what a co-created archive can do when creatively resisted by the people it seeks to represent, oppress, marginalise, or criminalise.
You’ll Know It When You Feel It is a socially engaged art project that seeks to resist bureaucratic representations of women whose lives intersect with the prison industrial complex. Co-created by Raphaela Rosella alongside several women in her life, this intimate work has emerged over fifteen years. From photographs to phone calls, the multi-authored exhibition examines the value of their co-created archive as a site of resistance.
[1] Eldridge and Reinke, “Introduction: Ethnographic Engagement with Bureaucratic Violence.”, 94.
