Tuesday, May 15, 2012

THE GHOSTVILLAGE PROJECT




This short documentary was shot in October 2009 on the remote Cowal Peninsula in the west of Scotland. It details arts collective Agents Of Change's transformation of an abandoned village of Pollphail into an open-air art gallery.

Six artists - Timid, Remi/Rough, System, Stormie Mills, Juice 126 and Derm - were given free reign to paint anywhere in the complex.

The brutalist 1970s concrete structures had never seen human inhabitants - the site was constructed ostensibly as a base to house workers needed to construct concrete oil rigs, but the plan was subsequently abandoned - but were ideally suited to the separate styles and methods employed by the collective.

Working together on huge collaborative walls and individually in hidden nooks and crannies all over the site the artists realised long held dreams and were inspired by the bleakness and remoteness of the site. Drawing on the history of the village the artists' stated intent on completion of the project was to populate the ghostvillage with the art and characters that it deserved.

Inspired by the marked contrast between the architecture and the surrounding landscape of rolling hills, forests and lochs, the artists worked for three days through challenging physical conditions to produce foreboding yet hauntingly beautiful artwork all over the site. The viewer is rewarded with a unique insight into the world of the graffiti artist and an opportunity to experience the creative process behind such a huge undertaking.

Short fact:
Word spreads fast in the highlands of scotland - 10 minutes after arriving on a site 3 hours from the nearest large settlement we had a crowd of children and the local police for company.

More @ Agents of Change