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TRAIN LINES
Train Lines is a distributed poem transcribed onto walls along Moreland's Upfield train line.
I conducted 26 interviews with random residents and commuters in Coburg Mall and along the Upfield Line, to discuss ways they and their families talk about death. These rich, funny and moving conversations inspired five poems. The chosen work was abridged to fit within the spatial contraints of six billboards.
A story is told from the point of view of a sentient body traveling up the line to his final destination. Visible to commuters from a moving train, the poem adds up over time and distance, much like history itself. Remnants of the work disappear as development overtakes the precincts, leaving more absences and gaps as the speaker is ‘forgotten’.
Artist: Marcia Ferguson. Graphic design: Letterbox. Materials: acrylic paint, stencils. Photos: Carla Gottgens, James Henry, the artist