The apparition
Alternating pairs of Indigenous eyes in a black background look out from three video monitors set on the floor of the gallery. They stare at a large video image of a ghostly white woman clothed all in white, performing a series of ritual religious actions, the Stations of the Cross. The white woman-a missionary, an anthropologist, a nurse, a mother, or all four, as many pioneer white women were-gazes ahead facing the gallery viewer (but ignoring the sets of eyes watching her intently from below) as she slowly performs her silent actions. Behind her is a large image of white washing blowing on a line stretched across the hills and scrubby bush of Alice Springs. She stares ahead into the future-at another large video image, set against the opposite wall.
This image shows a circular red claypan in Central Australia, which provides a natural amphitheatre for the fringing bush surrounding it. The camera pans slowly across the surface of the claypan. There is a young white woman dressed in shorts and a white shirt lying on her back with her knees bent, on the glistening red wet surface of the claypan-eyes open, enjoying the experience of being submerged in the warm red water. Around her, green budgerigars and butterflies swoop and hover. As the video continues, the surface of the claypan dries up, the water dries to red broken curls of clay, and the image of the young woman changes over time, so that her clothing is now covered with red dirt as though she has been pushed or hurt, or perhaps has rolled in the mud. She lies on her back with her eyes closed, legs outstretched, arms