​Ghost Stories

​Exhibited as part of OH! Open House 2017, the Ghost Stories series was situated in the corner stairwell of Holland Road Shopping Centre, a blind spot within a public area. The work extends from the artist’s interest in the multiple lives of public spaces and its potential to accommodate numerous narratives, some of which are veiled in plain sight.  This series of assemblages and sculptural installations brings together specific materials and objects that are associative of public spaces, reflecting on personal accounts gathered of cruising sites, often situated within communal venues like heartland swimming complexes, carparks and jogging trails. Found objects and materials intuitively braided together – a nylon rope snug closely to its coarser counterpart, the bright spot of a hose and nozzle peeking out innocently, coupled with the pleated drain cover curved gently on the side – present new textural affinities that echo an earlier instance of emotional kismet. The chance intermingling of rope, concrete, steel and plastic  hint at material past lives and a provenance of intimacy, where these loose fragments once served a function within public spaces and how these spaces in turn also hosted intimate exchanges. These material pairings also provide possibilities of another language, one premised on touch and texture, to consider stray acts of intimacy often obscured from the public eye.