Local ghost stories will play a role in this week’s Write Around the Murray Festival.
The Ghost Project is the brain child of artist Anna Tregloan, who hopes to trigger imagination and fear during her installation at the former holding cells behind Murray Arts Museum Albury, once used for prisoners facing court.
‘I am very interested in the idea that imagination can create its own truth,” Anna said.
“It does not take much for your imagination to conjure a ghost or hear things and react physically to things that your imagination can create.”
Local ghost stories have been gathered and will play a role in the project.
“We have found some very interesting stories,” Anna said.
“People seeing who they think were ex-residents in their house, just wandering through, quite tangible images of them. There’s another story about a piano player at a local pub.
“We make an installation that responds to that information, and also asks the bigger question of what ghosts are, how much of them is about our imagination, and why this is such an ongoing prevalent thing in every culture of the world. It’s fascinating.”
The former holding cells would appear to be the perfect ‘ghostly’ setting for the project.
“Buildings hold a kind of emotional energy,” Anna said.
“There’s scratch marks and names scratched into the walls. You can see where the furniture has been removed. There are ghosts in there, in that people have left their mark in that little room. The cells are full of content. And they’re really cold!”
For more information on The Ghost Project and other events during Write Around the Murray Festival, 14 – 17 September, visit: http://www.writearoundthemurray.org.au/
