Hag-ridden, 2014

  1. Tormented or worried, as if by a witch
  2.  1680’s “afflicted by nightmares”.  An old term for sleep paralysis, the sensation of being held immobile in bed, accompanied by a sense of an alien presence. Succubus, Mære (Old English), The Old Hag (Newfoundland).
Forest, Trees, Girl, collage of found footage, Vertigo, 2014

Hag-ridden was a solo exhibition at Summerhall, Edinburgh in June 2014.

Referencing female archetypes from Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, Italian Giallo horror films, and the writing of Shirley Jackson and Henry James, Hag-ridden used collage, painting, installation, video and sound to explore feminine identity as a form of haunting.

The exhibition originated from an episode of sleep paralysis I had as a teenager, in a house I was convinced was haunted. It is an experience that remains with me still.

“Hag-Ridden is a triumph of installation. Works as diverse as overlaid drawing-paintings on opaque caravan windows, scraped carbon-paper scenes from Hitchcock’s ‘Vertigo’ and video films all explore a landscape of haunted, absent houses and, related, the gulf of loneliness when one twin is away from its own carbon-paper copy. ”

– Paul Robertson, Curator, Summerhall, Edinburgh, 2014

Gallery view of sgraffito drawing on caravan window with carbon paper drawings in gallery windows
Exhibition view of black-and-white photomontage and collage painting from Hag-Ridden
Wider installation view of Rescue with hanging carbon paper drawings and window drawings
Wall drawing featuring quote from The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Installation view of Clootie Well sculpture made from dressmaking patterns, playing cards and glass
Installation view with tracing paper wall drawing and sgraffito caravan window drawing