PROJECT Brisbane Magistrates Court
LOCATION Brisbane, Australia
CLIENT Queensland Government
ARCHITECT Cox Rayner Architects
ARTWORK Witnessing to Silence
ARTIST Fiona Foley

Highly respected contemporary Aboriginal artist Fiona Foley was commissioned to make Witnessing to Silence for the celebrated Brisbane Magistrates Court, completed in 2005. A complex work, both emotionally and politically loaded, Witnessing to Silence incorporates several different elements and techniques that well illustrate UAP's skills in realizing multifaceted projects. The work incorporates three elements: cast bronze lotus lilies that emerge from ethereal mist, stainless steel columns embedded with ash in laminated glass panels, and etched place names in granite pavers. Set against a building that is itself a metaphor for authority, Foley's work is something of a contemporary monument to her people, and a unique recording of past history. Witnessing to Silence is arguably one of Australia's most important and potent contemporary art works situated in a public domain.