Kerrie O'Dea

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ARTIST'S STATEMENT

My purpose in formulating The Spirit of Airlie was to research the background to historic Mt Airlie relevant to the evidence of spirits or ghosts resident therein, to capture the essence of the battle for Mt Airlie against the spirits, and to depict the spirit of resilience inherent in the struggle – the spirit in the O’Dea family: Martin and Kerrie and their six children Nathan, Mathew, Hannah, Brendan, Daniel and Katelyn.

What spirit within them made them remain and create the place of belonging even though there was a battle against them?

The outcome explored through digital video was that the depiction of the ghost stories seemed of less importance than filming the essence of that spirit of resilience and co-operation within the family and explored through non-contrived digital footage of the working spirit and relationship of the family on Mt Airlie creating future archival footage that is a contribution to our family, our descendants, society and posterity.