Locustman, Susan Flavell, cardboard and glue, 2002.
Spooked was curated via the Geraldton Regional Art Gallery's 'Clinch's Mill at Greenough Hamlet' residency programme, which allowed artists to reside in Australia's third most significant heritage site - a perfectly preserved 1850s township on the Greenough coastal flats near Geraldton.
Six Western Australian artists spent a fortnight living in the reputedly-haunted Teacher's Quarters, making work for exhibition at the township's mill. The curator invited the artists to make work that articulated tension within the post-colonial landscape, and to draw upon the notion of ghosts and hauntings to symbolise the spectre of colonialism within a harsh, stolen landscape. The project was also an intentional parody of the popular 'regional horror' cinematic trope, in which a group of city dwellers travel to a regional location, are either intentionally or accidentally disrespectful of the local community or environment, and suffer dire consequences as a result (in the spirit of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13th, Long Weekend, The Wicker Man or Deliverance).
The works showed at Clinch's Mill in October 2002, and re-showed at the Moores Building Contemporary Art Gallery Fremantle a few weeks later.
Image: Spooked, digital photograph by Philip Gamblen and participating artists, created for the project invitation, 2002.
Greenough Hamlet photographed by Philip Gamblen, 2002.
The artists were completely alone in the township between 5pm when the visitors' centre closed, and 9am the following morning. The township was several hundred meters away from the nearest main road and outside mobile phone range, and had no street lighting or phone land lines.
Greenough Hamlet photographed by Philip Gamblen, 2002
The Greenough coastal flats are a distinctively bleak, though very beautiful stretch of the Western Australian coastline, particularly known for their iconic sideways-growing Eucalypts, that spread across the ground under the barrage of the harsh coastal winds. The area is marked by tragedy, including the devastating floods that caused the township to be abandoned during the nineteenth century, a grim history of convict labour and Aboriginal imprisonment, and a number of murders during the twentieth century. Numerous buildings within the surrounding area are said to be haunted, and the 'Bootenal Lights' - spirit lights similar to the 'Min Min' of the Nullarbor Plain - have allegedly been witnessed shooting along the tops of the hills surrounding hills intermittently for many decades.
The old schoolteacher's quarters, where the artists stayed, are reputedly still inhabited by their previous owner. The quarters adjoin the former Magistrate's quarters and prison cells, which are also said to be home to the spirits of their former residents.
Falling Limbs Series (detail), Andrew Nicholls and Pearl Rasmussen, digital and Polaroid photography, found wood, and mixed-media sculpture, 2002.
Falling Limbs Series (detail), Andrew Nicholls and Pearl Rasmussen, digital and Polaroid photography, found wood, and mixed-media sculpture, 2002.
Kite Cam, Philip Gamblen, kite-mounted digital camera, 2002.
Image from Kite Cam, Philip Gamblen, kite-mounted digital camera, 2002.
Image from Kite Cam, Philip Gamblen, kite-mounted digital camera, 2002.
Untitled (sound installation), Anna Green, sound recording under trapdoor and found grave marker, 2002
Spirit Levels (detail), Philip Gamblen, surveillance camera on conveyor belt, and television set, 2002, photograph c/o the artist.
Spooked, partial view of ground floor installation at Clinch's Mill, Greenough Hamlet, 2002. Viewable are works by Philip Gamblen, Anna Green and the curator.
Apparition, Dawn Gamblen, fishing line installation at Clinch's Mill, Greenough Hamlet, 2002
Cast Circle, Dawn Gamblen, fishing line, light globes and water, 2002
Spooked, partial view of first-floor installation in Clinch's Mill, Greenough Hamlet, 2002. Viewable are works by Dawn Gamblen and the curator.
Levitate, Dawn Gamblen, fishing line and found objects, 2002
Spook (Vince #2), Andrew Nicholls, chicken wire, packing tape and electrical components, 2002. Photograph by Philip Gamblen.
Spooked, partial view of condo-floor installation in Clinch's Mill, Greenough Hamlet, 2002. Viewable are works by Susan Flavell, Pearl Rasmussen and the curator.
Falling Limbs Series (detail), Andrew Nicholls and Pearl Rasmussen, digital and polaroid photography, found wood, and mixed media sculpture, 2002.
Locustman on his way to the Moores Building Contemporary Art Gallery for the Spooked re-hang in late 2002.
Untitled, installation and sound recording by Anna Green at the Moores Building Contemporary Art Gallery, 2002.
Untitled, detail of installation by Anna Green at the Moores Building Contemporary Art Gallery, 2002.
Spiders, Susan Flavell, cardboard and glue, 2002.
Spider, Susan Flavell, cardboard and glue, 2002.
Spirit Levels, Philip Gamblen, surveillance camera, conveyor belt and television, re-installted in Moores Building Contemporary Art Gallery rafters, 2002.
Cast Circle, Dawn Gamblen, fishing line, light globes and water, 2002.
Spook (Vince #2), Andrew Nicholls, chicken wire, pacing tape and electrical components, 2002.
Spook, Andrew Nicholls, digital photographs on suspended light boxes, 2002.
Spook (detail), Andrew Nicholls, digital photographs on suspended lightbox,2002