Poet, performer and musician Pascalle Burton has always been compelled by the visual possibilities of language and the imaginative dynamism of collage. Her multimodal work, which often draws on conceptual art and cultural theory, evokes a playful intelligence and a thrilling plurality of perspectives and ideas. Her recent project, What has been said by many and has often been said (after Cicero’s first and second speeches on the Agrarian Law), is no exception: it combines and rearranges text by Cicero and images of 1970s modernist Australian homes to explore notions of possession, power and profit. Burton talked to Griffith Review Editor Carody Culver about the collaboration that shaped the work and the process of creating something new from something extant.

CARODY CULVER: The images in this beautiful piece are taken from the book Australian Housing in the Seventies by Howard Tanner – and oh my, what houses they are! How did you come across this book, and what was it about the images that resonated with you?