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Terhi Hakola

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the door, 2018

This video animation has taken inspiration from the ‘hauntedness’ of Meroogal house in Nowra. It is Freud’s uncanny – at once both familiar and frightening. Meroogal for me is an archetypal place, where past and present mingle, evoking memories, dreams, fears and desires, long since buried into the corners of mind. Each room, each cupboard and dark corner has its own hidden story.

A tall Liquidambar styraciflua -tree towers in our urban backyard.

She is over 100 years old and has witnessed lives of other families before us; she observes humans’ restlessness.

Liquidambar is not an Australian native tree. I am not native either. We are immigrants from faraway lands. We have become friends – she is the older and wiser of us, and my confidant. She listens, and sometimes responds with a hum. She sees far, over the entire neighbourhood.

My friend Liquidambar will still be standing, pushing against the foundations of our house, long after I am gone.