View from the entrance. View from the entrance.

View from the entrance.

Child’s sandpit - Kassel soil with clods & tiny bobbypin bunkers Child’s sandpit - Kassel soil with clods & tiny bobbypin bunkers

Child’s sandpit - Kassel soil with clods & tiny bobbypin bunkers

Trench and Watchtower. Trench and Watchtower.

Trench and Watchtower.

Arial view of Trench, made from parent's bedroom furniture turned inside out. Arial view of Trench, made from parent's bedroom furniture turned inside out.

Arial view of Trench, made from parent's bedroom furniture turned inside out.

Detail: Trench Detail: Trench

Detail: Trench

Mother's much loved Albert Namatjira print, "Gums, Central Australia", yellow from age and cigarette smoke. Aboriginal artist from the 1950’s who bore all the injustices of those times mainly as an outcome, ironically, because he was made an Austral Mother's much loved Albert Namatjira print, "Gums, Central Australia", yellow from age and cigarette smoke. Aboriginal artist from the 1950’s who bore all the injustices of those times mainly as an outcome, ironically, because he was made an Austral

Mother's much loved Albert Namatjira print, "Gums, Central Australia", yellow from age and cigarette smoke. Aboriginal artist from the 1950’s who bore all the injustices of those times mainly as an outcome, ironically, because he was made an Australian citizen.

Baby hides in the Trench. An iconic rabbit trap suggests violence. Baby hides in the Trench. An iconic rabbit trap suggests violence.

Baby hides in the Trench. An iconic rabbit trap suggests violence.

Baby hiding - blackened silk stuffed with vacuum cleaner lint. Baby hiding - blackened silk stuffed with vacuum cleaner lint.

Baby hiding - blackened silk stuffed with vacuum cleaner lint.

Trench Gun, with Singer sewing machine parts. Trench Gun, with Singer sewing machine parts.

Trench Gun, with Singer sewing machine parts.

Trench gun with pics of Israeli & Sinai Desert Watchtowers (Farther’s tour of duty 1941). Links the sculptures to the dado around the walls. Trench gun with pics of Israeli & Sinai Desert Watchtowers (Farther’s tour of duty 1941). Links the sculptures to the dado around the walls.

Trench gun with pics of Israeli & Sinai Desert Watchtowers (Farther’s tour of duty 1941). Links the sculptures to the dado around the walls.

Singer Sewing Machine Gun and Watchtower. Singer Sewing Machine Gun and Watchtower.

Singer Sewing Machine Gun and Watchtower.

Singer Sewing Machine Gun faces off Trench machine gun. Singer Sewing Machine Gun faces off Trench machine gun.

Singer Sewing Machine Gun faces off Trench machine gun.

Mother’s Singer sewing machine & bobby pins make up the Vickers machine gun. Father was a machine gunner. Mother’s Singer sewing machine & bobby pins make up the Vickers machine gun. Father was a machine gunner.

Mother’s Singer sewing machine & bobby pins make up the Vickers machine gun. Father was a machine gunner.

Detail: Singer Sewing Machine Gun with dado, Tour of Duty II. Detail: Singer Sewing Machine Gun with dado, Tour of Duty II.

Detail: Singer Sewing Machine Gun with dado, Tour of Duty II.

Watchtower, made from a marital double bed. Watchtower, made from a marital double bed.

Watchtower, made from a marital double bed.

Watchtower floor made from a child's cot mattress, with the padding removed. Watchtower floor made from a child's cot mattress, with the padding removed.

Watchtower floor made from a child's cot mattress, with the padding removed.

Overview of Interior Decoration. Overview of Interior Decoration.

Overview of Interior Decoration.

Interior Decoration
documenta 14, Palais Bellevue, Kassel, Germany, 8 Apr - 17 Sep 2017

Funding: Visual Arts Board, Australian Council; Arts NSW; Faculty Research Grant, College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales..

"...a reworking of Ely’s installation Interior Decoration (2013– ), draws attention to the chronic, intergenerational effects of post-traumatic stress disorder as an outcome of war, which shapes the psychological fabric of Athens and Kassel: Athens as site of deep economic trauma and [historically] the transitional space between Europe and the Middle East; Kassel as destination for Syrian refugees as well as home to one of the largest tank and ammunition factories in Germany. The installation situates militarisation within the domestic space and highlights the domestication of the military."
— Hendrik Folkerts - http://www.documenta14.de/en/artists/1001/bonita-ely

Examples of imagery in the dado, titled Tour of Duty. The dado runs around the installation, creating a visual narrative of trauma. Formally it ‘ties’ the installation together. Left to right: details from the signage at the KulturBahnhof (Kassel Central Station) describing an installation by Dr. Horst Hoheisel, Das Gedächtnis der Gleise ('The Memory of the Tracks', 2015). The names of Kassel's Jewish people who were deported and killed during WW2 are inscribed on the railway tracks at the platform from which they were deported. Dr. Horst Hoheisel kindly gave permission to document and include the names in the installation.

Images of Australian soldiers, World War 2: Left to right - Camping at Ashqelon, Palestine; Australian soldiers escorting a Japanese prisoner at the end of WW2 in Borneo; Thomas Ely, the artist’s father who served as a machine gunner and suffered from undiagnosed PTSD; Machine gunners, Balikpapan, Borneo, 1945.

Left to right: Vietnam/American War - helicopters; bombed villages, Syria; Deborah Kelly, Beware of the God, sign writing artwork above the Sydney Opera House for an MCA exhibition, Sydney.

Left to right: Over 3000 Australian nurses volunteered for active service during WW2; woman ‘knitting for soldiers’ in a bunker during WW1.

Holocaust memorials, Kassel.

Memorial to Slavery in Zanzibar, Tanzania.

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