HILL END ARTS COUNCIL: KIM DEACON - New installation performance

Friday, October 16, 2015

KIM DEACON - New installation performance

Hill End based musician, performer and artist Kim Deacon presents an installation based on the shipboard diary of Mary Maclan, a Scottish immigrant who settled in Hill End in the 1870's. The exhibition goes on display at the Jean Bellette Gallery from 20 November 2015 to the 24th January 2016.

The diary of Mary Maclean documents her passage to Sydney from Glasgow on The Africana in 1865. It was found through pure chance by a man walking his dog in Hill End in 1961. The dog chased a rabbit and disappeared into a thick canopy of undergrowth covering a derelict house. Inside this abandoned house was a wooden box. Inside the box: a diary.

Written while she sailed as a 3rd class steerage passenger aboard The Africana from Liverpool to Sydney in 1865, the diary gives a moving and detailed account of life at sea, and the insights of a young woman on the brink of a new life.

Mary married William Marchall of Marhcall's Rich Vein Gold Mining Company, Hill End, in 1873 and lived out the rest of her life at the 'Littlehouse' family home opposite Craigmoor, where they raised four sons.

A Storm at Sea will recreate the steerage accommodation of Mary Maclean through film, narrative and a soundscape featuring the windharp. Historically, the windharp was used by Greeks and Romans as they sailed off to war and a small harp or lyre would be placed at the bow of the ship, allowing the wind to play through the strings creating heavenly harmonic sounds which would bode them well in battle.

To create the windharp soundscape for A Storm At Sea, Kim Deacon records her harps on the lookouts of Hill End and the Lachlan Valley of Cowra to create a haunting harmonic sound field which will play throughout the installation.

Kim Deacon: A Storm At Sea will be opened by artist John Firth-Smith on Friday 20 November, 5.30pm for 6pm speeches, at the Jean Bellette Gallery, Visitors Centre, Hill End.