Three months ago two of the six well-established artists – known collectively as Agents of Change – saw a BBC news report about Polphaill, known as the Ghost Village. It was built in the 1970s to houseoil-rig construction workers but was never inhabited and later abandoned. It became news when its demolition, due to occur in December, was announced. Timid and Remi knew immediately that they wanted to paint it. The ghostvillage project was born!
The Ghostvillage Project was created over 3 days on the west coast of Scotland. 6 artists - Timid, Remi/Rough, System, Stormie Mills, Juice 126, Derm - were given free reign to paint in an abandoned 1970s village. 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.
"One guy who could see the village from his house came over daily to see our progress. He said: 'I've had to look at this place every day and it's horrible. You've really brightened it up.' It's ironic that he's resented it for such a long time and now we've been able to transform it into something he loves looking at."
"The contrast between the architecture and the natural landscape was the kernel of our reason for doing it," Timid says. "There were a lot of blind alleys and blocked areas, so you could be walking along, turn a corner and there's a Stormycharacter right in front of your face, but you hadn't seen it coming because the line of sight was blocked."
