The body of work that comprises Footsteps in the Macaulay House was completed during a recent artist residency in Dawson City, Yukon, under the auspices of the Klondike Institute of Art and Culture. The work focuses on the historic Macaulay house, which was established as a residence for visiting artists in 2001 and is rumored to be a site of supernatural activity. Over the years, visiting artists have had uncanny and unsettling experiences in the house, which have resulted in some cases in early departures and uncompleted residency projects. For the past two years I have been recording stories concerning supernatural events witnessed by members of the Canadian and international arts community while working in the house. Past residents who have sent me stories include Scott Marsden (director of the Nanaimo Art Gallery), Leela Gilday (singer/ songwriter, Toronto) and Naomi McCormack (artist and film instructor, Pennsylvania State University), among many others. From August until October 2007, I stayed in the Macaulay residence and used it as a studio to create paintings and two installation-based works based on the stories I had collected. The aim of this project was to catalogue and illustrate the rich mythology that has been built up around the Macaulay house and to use it as a vehicle to visually and conceptually explore fears and questions surrounding the afterlife.

The stories, paintings and installation works will be reproduced in a book, to be published in early 2008 with the assistance of the Canada Council for the Arts. A researched history of the Macaulay House will also be included in this publication.
less ...