CAMPFIRE STORIES and VISITATIONS — Red Cloud's
Ghost
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This project consists of a photograph of Red Cloud, the Oglala leader,
projected onto the smoke of a campfire. As the smoke moves about in the
breezes Red Cloud's image appears and disappears — the thicker the
smoke the more vivid the image.
The campfire is something that is created out in the landscape. At night
the campfire becomes the center of the world — it's where the light
and the warmth is — and the world beyond the light cast by the fire
is dark and often dangerous.
Since it's origins the campfire must have been a place for community and
the campfire and story-telling must have always gone hand-in-hand. No
doubt, in very ancient times, campfire gatherings must have been a time
for hunters and warriors to tell of their exploits. Today many campfire
stories are ghost stories and, while many are light-hearted fictions
(often told to give children a fright) there are truly ghosts on the
landscape — of people who have passed before us and whose spritits
still engage us and speak to us. The landscape is saturated with their
stories — some heroic, some not so — that speak to the human
drama. These stories tell us about how we behave and how we adapt and how
we survive (or not). Many stories tell of failure and tragedy. If we want
to know the landscape we need to know these stories — many which go
well back in time.