DODHO:
“In your series Leaving Home, we find a subject almost with a ghost appearance occupying the spaces of an empty house, in the statement, you connected the images to your life being the middle child of six. We find again the image of the in-between. Were you missing some solitude in a big family when you were a child? Is there any influence from the ghost stories or horror films in the series?”
ANN PROCHILO:
“Being born into a large family is one of my greatest blessings. Dinner was a lively affair starting promptly at six, each of us in assigned seats. Conversation was witty, brutal in its censure, and relentless in its teasing. Solitude was not a concept I could conceive of, even in moments of profound loneliness. Though I sometimes felt lost in the shuffle or alienated, I always felt loved and secure.
I was four when my parents bought an old house that had once served as the Cottage Hospital for the village. In the midst of a hoard, there were bed pans and exotic bottles hinting of potions and poison. The best find was a high-backed, wicker wheelchair that quickly became a carnival ride to be fought over. My parents’ bedroom had a door that was taller than the rest. I was told it was to accommodate surgical equipment. I envisioned all the births and deaths, trauma and celebrations that happened there. When my father renovated the bathroom, he found a Book of Psalms in the wall that belonged to the builder. All of this stoked my imagination about the past and hidden things awaiting discovery.
Above all, this project is about belonging and loss. I’ve always been a bit attracted to the macabre and the idea of an invisible curtain separating the physical world from the world of the dead. The making of these images was my vigil in the lead up to my mother’s death. The curtain felt thinner. I wanted to make my mark and imprint on the light, smells and textures of this place that held my family and memories. I made thousands of images, sometimes blurring features to convey movement, tension and the lifting of the veil. I haunted rooms to secure my place in the pantheon of ghosts who came before me and those who will come after. I made my peace.”