Death Shroud for a Ship
Installation

 

The ship is seen here as a ghostly absent familial object that my maritime architect and boatbuilding grandfather never finished at the time of his death. It may have contextual parallels of a broader societal concern that mourns loss at the instance of ships in the violent construction of so-called Australia. This event evokes both an ascension and sinking of 'a ship' of sorts, conjured in the darkness through sound and 16mm film. It is a poetic attempt to finish building something futile, a Sisyphean attempt to build a ship out of cinema. Beyond this, a romanticism lies within ships or boats as a world adrift upon an unknowable sea.

Co-produced by the Centre for Projection Art for the Gertrude Street Projection Festival, August 2023.
Sound, 16mm film, and installation by Melody Woodnutt.
Death Shrouds by Pia Interlandi.
Sound mastering/mentor, Lawrence English.
Venue support by the Mission to Seafarers Norla Dome, Melbourne.
All images courtesy of Sharni Higgins and Centre for Projection Art.