Before I Die is an ongoing global public art project that originated in New Orleans in 2011 by artist Candy Chang. It comprises a large chalkboard wall that features rows of the statement, “Before I die I would like to…” Passers-by can write their responses on the chalkboard wall with chalk. It is a gentle and enticing…

Bittersweet, conceived by Melanie Scaife and Jessica Raschke, is a playful intervention into everyday life, bringing poetry and audiences together over a cup of coffee. It presents in the form of a sugar sachet, served free of charge to audiences when they order coffee or tea at a participating outlet. Inside the sachet is a…

Soul Secrets is an interactive installation that asks passersby some probing questions: It was featured as part of MicroGalleries in Nowra (2015), at Ten Thousand Paces in Bowral (2016), and Hapenny Lane in Katoomba (2016). Think about those things that most people don’t know about you… something lovely, funny, crazy-beautiful, dubious, fact, fiction(ish)… a haunting memory,…

Suicide Silence is a projected text monologue that explores the internal narratives that can arise when a person is experiencing suicidal thoughts. The work draws on recognisable patterns of thinking associated with suicidal distress – hopelessness, isolation, despair – and brings these usually private thoughts into a shared public space. Presented as projected text rather…

Vinyl text installation at 69 Smith Street, Collingwood (Melbourne), as part of IRREAL: Being Exist, 2008.

Jess’s go-to quotes were featured in the Ward Lane Art project, Four Words, with her partner Jim Pettigrew, in 2017 (photo courtesy of Monica Donoso).

A series of five street signs installed in Leeds Street, Footscray, 2012. The five signs combined to feature a poem titled Footscray by Jessica Raschke.

Mystifed, La Trobe Visual Art Centre, Bendigo, 2012. Mystified is a collaborative project by photographic artist Maggie MacCathie-Nevile and Jess Raschke that explores the shadowy boundaries between dreaming and waking life. The work examines the ways our visual imaginations create, encounter and make meaning from the imagery that emerges within dream landscapes. Through photography and…

A series of lightbox installations, What We’re Going Through, featured outside fauxPho studios (Footscray) in 2006.

Inspired Lives was exhibited at The Dax Centre in late 2012 to early 2013. It explored suicide’s impact through the perspective of artists who have directly experienced suicide. According to The Dax Centre, “Inspired Lives shares the original voice of suicide survivors. It reveals the deeply personal experiences of individuals who are working through their struggles, finding inspiration and…