Apparition

Full description

BACKGROUND
‘Apparition’ is a practice-led research project responding to University Square in a state of flux, between landscape redevelopment works by the City of Melbourne and the Metro tunnel construction. Exploring the sensibility and mythology of objects and spaces, the project was a response to the issue of possums in the dying elm trees in the square and debates in the community about how to deal with them. Though too populous, they cannot be moved, or culled too visibly. Possum supporters are fiercely protective. The research led to a subtle public artwork would operate peripherally, an apparition whose elusiveness mirrors the possible disappearance of the animal. As an animated video installation within the field of public art, concerned with both ecology and technology, it links to the practice of key artists such as Mark Dion, Andrea Zittel and Olafur Eliasson.
CONTRIBUTION
‘Apparation’ featured holographic projections of possums on two trees to be visible intermittently at night. Apparitions in a time of crisis, they became a gesture that addressed the spectre of extinction, asking ‘will you miss me when I’m gone’? Acknowledging the strong Chinese student community around the square, I invited 10 Mandarin-speaking students to begin a word-of-mouth campaign on social media about the work. The plaque for the work is bilingual.
SIGNIFICANCE
‘Apparition’ was conceived through collaborative research with Melbourne City Council, involving workshops with academics, poets and Indigenous Elders that meant I could consider the site in a deep, multifaceted way. It was commissioned by the John Cunningham at the City of Melbourne, which funded fit or $130,000, auspiced by RMIT.