Through December 2002, a residency shared with filmmaker Louise Curham saw the creation of Miss Shaw Dreams in a variety of guises: as an installation of Super-8 film projections on soft sculptures; as a desk floating in a stairwell; as a reading of texts ‘in character’; later, as a Super-8 film accompanied by taped narration, and as a limited edition of the artist’s book subtitled ‘A Story by Implication’ (see here below). Miss Shaw Dreams began as Clatter, the fourth in a series of Six Conjecural Modules based at the Tower Studio, part of Queen’s College, The University of Melbourne. Premised on collaboration and the idea of the ‘open exhibition’, these Modules were coordinated by Sandra Bridie.

Miss Shaw Dreams was informed by documents in the Queen’s College archives—historical materials about traditions surrounding Initiation Week, potentially disturbing rites of passage for young ‘freshers’ joining the college community. It was also inspired by the Tower Studio’s location opposite the Melbourne General Cemetery. Through the fictional character of Miss Miranda Shaw, Secretary to the Master of the College, the project became an investigation into fear and bewilderment, memory, and fantasies of escape, layered into text fragments and Curham’s luminous hand-processed film loops.