Artist statement

Ghosts ‘n Greed provides an opportunity to understand how history continuously impacts the contemporary world. It recovers lost knowledge and reintroduces it into a world that often fights against acknowledging an ugly truth – that Australia was invaded. The work strives to bring knowledge of colonisation into a modern light through the manipulation of contemporary media and by viewing history from an alternative perspective.

Did you know many First Nations people accepted white colonisers onto their lands, believing them to be ghosts passing through to the afterlife? By painting over images taken on my mob’s traditional land, I aim to recover this knowledge. Glitching effects, with images from real life, emphasises how the video is not just a game. It is a recurring reality. It serves to show how Indigenous peoples’ voices were erased. Stories of colonisation, as told from an Indigenous perspective, shed a new light onto the history we know.

Process

The process of creating this artwork started with the decision on the costume design for the ghost as a human. Pilgrimage-style clothing was chosen, as well as a set design of the Australian outback. This location was scouted and decided on for its relation to my mob. As well as this, I utilised simple cartoon-like drawings and photographs of the ghost in both its human and ghost forms. An innovative technique utilised was the implementation of acrylic paint on matte photographs, all being compiled into a video file to create a sense of a video game being corrupted.

About the artist

After school I plan to study Design at Griffith University and major in Visual Communications. When it comes to my art and creation process, I'm heavily motivated by my family to create stories and to share stories. I'm influenced by country and the bush that surrounds my home and the ocean at the end of the road. Crows follow me to the train station to school each day and I feel my ancestors watch over me. For me, culture is everything I am. It influences my decisions regarding anything from forms of self-care to political decisions and my stance as an activist. And I feel like art is such a great way to communicate that and to learn about other people's stances and views on the world. To be selected for the Creative Generation Excellence Awards in Visual Art means the world to me. It means that my work holds weight and others have the capacity to learn about my views on the world.