Thought Tablatures

Thought tablatures on A Haunting by Tracey Moffatt

A Haunting is a house with a rhythmic heartbeat and it burns red.  It sits campfire-like and honours First Nations peoples on whose land it sits.

​

A Haunting spills comforting red beams as if coming from a lighthouse. It keeps a vigil watch.  The house will stay active until COVID 19 disappears off the face of the earth. Allow this art installation to be our sentinel guard, counting down to the hour.

​

I have created an art installation A Haunting in an isolated abandoned farm house. Only passing truck drivers will see it lighted red at night, and this is the appeal.

​

I stood in the quiet dark night watching A Haunting flicker its red glow, then I felt the air vibrate and two giant road trains roared past with their powerful high beams. The drivers tooted their deafening horns and I was so excited and waved back.

​

A Haunting is a house that has a red glow coming from within. At times, the slow rhythmic lights expand and recede as if the house is breathing.

​

I view A Haunting as a continuous theatre set, never to be ‘struck’. The show begins at 6.00pm each night and finishes 6.00am the next morning come rain or come shine. All are welcome and no charge.

​

A Haunting is hypnotic to stand and gaze at – but the other principal player is the starry diamond curtain dropped low behind on a clear dark night.

​

When I first spotted the abandoned farmhouse as I drove past I immediately thought that it looked like a crime scene. I went back alone at night to see it again and I thought that I heard noises coming from inside and I imagined a red lighted mass spilling out from it.  (please note my bravery at going back alone at night to the house – I was also quite scared as I drove alone the 28 minutes back to town.)

​

A Haunting is to be viewed from the roadside and never from inside the front gate.  Thus, our near distant ‘visual’ keeps us in a safe zone away from the pulsing red demons.

​

Imagine seeing A Haunting shrouded in fog – I will. Someone please call me when this happens and I will come see.

(written by Tracey Moffatt after creating A Haunting in Armatree NSW November 2021)