16 March - 15 April, 2007
Church, Port Arthur Historic Site,
Port Arthur, Tasmania

I wonder what they thought about? fills the space that was once the floor of Port Arthur’s non-denominational church. The temporary nature of this project interests Ms. Woods: it will eventually return to its original state and will remain only in memory.

For her, the church – the only centrally heated building on the site – offered a place of warmth for body and spirit. It was also a place full of memory and hope, and these emotions may sustain, or torment.

Each Sunday more than a thousand members of the prison community filled the church, but Ms. Woods wonders what they gained from it. Accepting that they were all obliged to attend the service, did the experience provide the comfort of God, a sense of peace, spiritual escape, human contact or merely physical warmth, a break from labour, and time to snooze or daydream – or was it an intertwining of all these?