Mark Romei spoke with 8CCC's Kate Lyons-Dawson about his Watch This Space exhibition: Redaction, Absence, Opacity, on until 1 August, which examines Australia's use of hotels as sites of immigration detention, focusing on a network of facilities concealed through both their everyday appearance and bureaucratic redaction. Operating as "Alternative Places of Detention" (APODs), these sites are embedded within ordinary urban environments, their carceral function obscured by familiar architecture and limited public visibility.

Mark is an architectural researcher and spatial practitioner whose work explores how creative and investigative methods can be used to document and challenge sites of violence. His practice brings together architectural research and artistic approaches to examine contested sites and consider how forms of violence are embedded within the built environment. Mark recently completed a PhD at Monash University and has collaborated with DAAR (Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency) on projects in Australia, Palestine, and Sweden.