When three artists began working on an exhibition of sketches exploring life under lockdown at Sydney’s quarantine station in decades gone by, little did they know, they would have real life experience to draw on as well. 

Working with paper, textiles and paint, artists Jo Neville, Julie Paterson and Fiona Chandler have each created forty panels representing the original forty-day quarantine period of detention or isolation imposed on those arriving in Sydney on ships suspected of carrying infectious diseases in their exhibition, History Repeats, which begins at MAG&M on 4 December. 

Mayor Michael Regan said the concept of the exhibition which initially seemed anchored in the past, quarantine, suddenly had become very current. 

“All three artists began to rethink their approach to the exhibition and their artworks, looking at the contrasts and similarities between quarantine then and now, and have come up with some fascinating artworks.”   

Senior Curator Katherine Roberts said the cross-media arts project was inspired by the desire to bring together artists who also practice as designers.  

“We look forward to seeing how the 120 panels come together on MAG&M’s walls, floor and suspended in the air and how the audience engages with the installation.” 

“The artists have brought to their works their own personal and socio-historical narratives in parallel with each other at this unprecedented time in Australian history.  

“This timely exhibition is presented in partnership with Q Station, Manly, to whom we are most grateful for the site access they provided to the artists and for the enthusiasm with which they embraced what is our third partnership project in the past five years,” Katherine Roberts said. 

The artists in a collaborative statement said: “Making forty artworks each was a lot to make and we all found it hard to get a foothold, especially early on in the NSW lockdown. But all three of us are designers as well as artists, and we are good at spotting the patterns and opportunities, and cracking on to meet a brief.” 

“Gradually, we noticed four themes emerging in our work (Space, Surveillance, Signs and Still Life), ideas that linked the historical and contemporary experiences of quarantine. It’s in these themes that we saw how history repeats.” 

History Repeats commences 4 December and ends 14 February 2021.