About the exhibition
The site of Canterbury Archaeological Trust’s dig, the starting point for this exhibition, lies within an area of human activity spanning thousands of years. Evidence from the site forms part of Rochester’s story and links to the broad patterns, connections and significances of history. The exhibition brings together art, archaeology and archive material linked to the site.
The emanations, fragments and traces from the site are part of a greater, unfinished flow of energies, stories and ghosts, passing through time, populations and generations.
It spans from the Neolithic Kits Coty House of the first farmers overlooking the Medway, through patterns of migration, toil and conflict. It traces settlement stories of Romans, Vikings, Normans, Vortigen, Hengist, Horsa and the successive dynasties of Kent. It also includes stories of Shorts Brothers, of workers and families, creativity and history, innovation and conflict, and of the many ghosts that haunt Rochester.
From the land and soil, stories and myths of lives, loves, loss, achievements and failures emerge. From within the swirling dramas, shifts, loops and flow of time, the ghosts that shape our particular and collective dreams and visions take form.
The Ghosts of Other Things is an exhibition created from fragments and traces. It is perhaps also the fragments and traces of our own unfinished stories and of the many ghosts which haunt us.
Exhibition created by Bryan Hawkins in partnership with the Canterbury Archaeological Trust and Rochester Art Gallery.
