To Rose, My Love

To Rose (My Love) is an interactive video installation by collaborative artists Dennis Kratz (Sarah-Mace Dennis and Svenja Kratz), inspired by ghost stories and historical tragedies from NSW’s gold mining era. Based on a tale of a woman who ended her life and her family's when her husband failed to return from the mines, the installation combines video, audio, and viewer interaction to evoke themes of loss, memory, and haunting.

Projected onto three gallery walls, the footage of Triamble, a remote area near Hill End, has two layers. The top layer presents documentary footage of the site, while an underlying layer contains ghostly figures that emerge only through viewers’ movements. These ghostly forms are initially seen as fleeting glimpses, becoming clearer if viewers linger in specific spots. An ambient soundtrack of whispers and voices calling out to "Rose" adds to the atmosphere, drawing viewers into an immersive experience that aims to bridge past and present, exploring interactivity as a pathway to engage with corporeal and historical memory.

PROJECT DETAILS:

Dennis Kratz, To Rose, My Love, 2005. Interactive Video Installation.