The Isolation Chamber was a response to the violent practice of locking psychiatric patients into solitary confinement (seclusion rooms). In the year before this exhibit, Victorian hospitals locked people in solitary 7461 times. We wanted to make this more visible.
Isolation Chamber
Rory Randall and Indigo Daya, 2021–2022
Mixed media installation
Mental exhibition
Science Gallery, University of Melbourne, and
ArtScience Museum, Singapore
The isolation chamber was an interactive art installation project between myself and Rory Randall, in partnership with the Science Gallery. It provided a simulated experience of seclusion and observation of secluded people, with distorted viewing portals into the chamber. Visitors wrote observation notes and attached them to the outside of the chamber.
Inside, the chamber was stark and all white, with a cardboard bedpan and a paper drinking cup. This is what most seclusion rooms are like—just more dirty and with only one viewing window.
On average, Victorian psych patients are locked in seclusion for 5.7 hours. Imagine someone doing that to you on one of the most distressing days of your life. All alone, with not a single distraction or comfort. Knowing that no-one is coming to help.
This is the mental health system that some people claim to be proud of. It’s no surprise that, for many folks, going to hospital can make us even more distressed and traumatised.
About seclusion (solitary confinement)
Rates of seclusion in Victoria are amongst the highest in Australia, despite United Nations criticism about this practice being a serious human rights violation. Locking people into solitary confinement doesn’t just happen in psych hospitals (though the rates are very high in psych wards). It happens all over Australia: in prisons, youth detention, in refugee and asylum seeker detention facilities, schools, disability and aged care institutions.
Many human rights bodies have rightfully said that solitary confinement—especially when prolonged—is a cruel and degrading practice. Some bodies have described it as torture. Yet in Australia, across every state and territory, state-run systems continue to lock people into tiny spaces, alone, and without consequence.
I was once locked in solitary confinement, following a suicide attempt on a psych ward. For decades this experience has come back to me in nightmares. It’s one of the reasons I still feel fearful of doctors, sometimes even of leaving the house.
The exhibit aligned with the launch of my second report into seclusion for VMIAC, the peak advocacy body for consumers/survivors of the mental health system. The report was launched at the exhibition in June 2022 with local news coverage.
