Is Mary Here Again?

About

Waygood presents a summer season of exhibitions before our Art Boutique is included in the transformation of our building into a spectacular new venue for contemporary visual art and artists. It is into this context that the four women artists have been invited to exhibit. Issues of space, public and private, are linked with personal and collective experiences concerning time, memory and the unknown. Each artist will present their work at a series of discourse events and a podcast during the summer. Waygood is delighted to be part of the region's first Print Biennale and a limited edition of ten prints will accompany each exhibition, published by Waygood. ‘Is Mary Here Again?' is a film made from footage recorded during a recent paranormal event at Kielder Castle in Northumberland. The title is one of the questions a medium asked of the spirits believed to be present, “Are you a child?, "Do you mind us being here?", "...is Mary here again?". Kielder Castle is also an exhibition space containing wildlife, endangered species and local history displays. This becomes the backdrop for the film. Table tipping, spirit writing and trance mediumship take place against images of giant red squirrels, pitchforks and fantasy dioramas. The sound and image elements of the film are presented separately. The voices of the mediums are audible outside the gallery on the Waygood's external speakers, while the moving image installation inside is silent. Coutts & Murray have also produced prints made from film grabs taken when flashguns went off during a séance. ‘Paranormal' photographs have been created in this way using orbs and tricks of the light."