Gombey Ghost Train

Class Residency at MAKE Liverpool

Tuesday 22 October 2019

Title: Gombey Ghost Train Date: October 2019 Materials: Projector, A4 red, green, blue and yellow acetate, tulle, ribbon, mirrors, wire, wooden circles Size: Est. 11 feet high by 6 feet wide

Gombey Ghost Train is an installation created out of scrap tulle fabric, A4 acetate sheets, wooden circles, umbrella wire, mirrors, fishing wire, and a video projection turned sideways accompanied by Bermuda Gombey music.

The idea for this installation started when I was chillin on a train from South Port to Lime Street Station. As usual I chose the window seat. Even though I have lived here for a little over a year I still enjoy looking at the scenery that still looks foreign and storybookesque. The window I sat next to was filthy creating a gross, blurry film which distorted my view. I had to take pictures or film it or something. Luckily for me I travel like a snail carrying more belongings than I need. Inside my pregnant purse was a small video camera. I pressed the camera close to the window and watched as the moving images began to resemble grungy Monet and Hopper paintings until the camera card became full.

I wasn’t sure what to do with the grimy video footage. I tried to make word associations with trains and remembered that the first moving picture ever made was of a train. I started pairing the film with dialog from the 1987 movie, Throw Mama from the Train. Even though I liked the video pairing, I decided against it.

I edited the video but couldn’t figure out how to make it work. I started thinking about Liverpool and what connections it has to Bermuda and other Islands in the Atlantic and the most obvious answer was Liverpool’s history of being a major port, making most of its money selling enslaved people which I am a product of. I thought about the train as being a metaphor for time and wanted to showcase what Liverpool looks like in contemporary times with the sounds and colours represented by a contemporary culture that Liverpool inadvertently helped to create.