ABSTRACT
The 2018 exhibition justiceINjustice at The Lock-Up Contemporary Art Space, Newcastle (Australia), drew together seven artists and three lawyers to respond to high profile Australian cases of injustice: deaths in custody, inadequate police investigation, excessive police force, wrongful convictions and wrongful detention. justiceINjustice aimed to scrutinise public interest cases of injustice in a multi-layered manner that would transcend official police, judicial or coronial narratives, immerse viewers in a forensic aesthetic and amplify the inadequacies of the criminal justice system. This chapter will examine justiceINjustice as an exercise in the artistic appropriation of the legal document and its transformation into visual art object. Here, artists made use of a range of documents from coronial inquests, police integrity commissions, corrective services records and royal commissions, to research and form aesthetic responses. The resulting exhibited artworks were transformative of their original textual legal sources, tangibly immersing viewers in unforgiving, experiential installations, all within the carceral and historic site of The Lock-Up. Ultimately, I will conclude that provided traumatic and tragic events are handled through consultation and with the utmost respect, creative outcomes can evince material and sensorial aspects of injustice not immediately apparent on the face of the document.
