Parkville Ghosts explores the resonant spaces and reflective surfaces of the Parkville campus during COVID-19 lockdown; as the campus is depopulated of the living, the iconic vaulted Gothic architecture is given over to ghosts, and the only uncovered faces to be seen are effigies. This piece uses music, sound, words, and location, filming at South Lawn Car Park (designer Jan van der Molen), Charity Being Kind To The Poor sculpture (Tilgner & Raht), The Old Quad (designer Francis Moloney White) and The Gatekeeper’s Cottage (designer Joseph Reed), interspersed with objects from the VCA Prop Shop. Filmed during Interactive Composition: An Open House (Southbank Campus in 2019), the work engages with archetypes and tropes of haunted placesas a crucible for transformation, the lingering nature of memory, and the fragile interstices between loss and anxiety, psychological horror and the other – echoes, shadows and acoustic reflections – and the ambiguity between inanimate objects, automaton, and personhood.
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Talie Helene, otherwise known as Talie & The Lost Art, is a solo artist exploring myth and narrative in crafted lyrics alongside Gothicism, horror, and the sublime in electro and acoustic instrumentation. Helene served her apprenticeship performing with Wendy Rule, The Tenth Stage, Saba Persian Orchestra, Maroondah Symphony, Eden, Adesso, and others in extreme metal genres. She was co-editor of The Year’s Best Australian Fantasy & Horror anthology (insert year). Helene writes and publishes fiction, poetry, and critical writing. Helene collaborates with Adam Calaitzis exploring ‘the studio as instrument’ at Toyland Recording Studio, as well as producing in her garret. As interdisciplinary artist, Helene collaborates with other musicians, as well as writers of poetry and prose, actors, and visual artists. The Lost Art is as a collective is where beautiful minds and ideas collide. Helene is studying a Bachelor of Music (Interactive Composition) degree at the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, Victorian College of the Arts and the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music.