Knowledge is Power

'Knowledge is Power' is a sculptural/spatial installation work that deals with the idea of knowledge, power and ignorance. Comprised of six elements - old encyclopaedias - that have one word each cut straight through their centre (knowledge is power / ignorance is bliss) in cursive script, each book was placed on a bannister plinth at the stairwell landing of two separate stairways at either end of Domain House, and old school building. As the viewer ascended the staircase, they read the statement 'knowledge is power' (or while descending, 'power is knowledge') one book at a time on one staircase, and 'ignorance is bliss' (or 'bliss is ignorance') on the opposite staircase. The work questioned the location, formation, containment and distribution of knowledge, and with each book open to an image specific to its individual word, the pedagogical methodology of rote learning and the paradigm of massified education. Domain: A contested landscape