Inside the new National Museum of Australia exhibition, Haunting by Vic McEwan, that almost didn't happen

It was 2015, the year McEwan was the artist in residence at the museum, and the pair had spent two months sitting on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River waiting for the fog to roll in. The goal was to create digital works projecting images of objects from the museum's collection onto the Murrumbidgee's dark waters and into fog, mist and smoke.

The problem was, however, there was no guarantee when the fog would come, and if the projections would work when it did come.

"I was starting to think about how light acts in that fog," McEwan said.

"Because projection is part of my art practice, but I'm not very interested in projecting onto, say, the flat surfaces of buildings. I was wanting to think about it in a different way.

"So I just started thinking about taking that control away from me and also, what if I use the beauty of the fog to actually help me make the work? And what would that mean? So not knowing was the really exciting part for me as well."

The photographs and videos included in the exhibition were created in 2015 at William Farrer's historic Lambrigg property, just outside of Canberra, as part of McEwan's year-long residency at the National Museum of Australia.

William Farrer is known for producing Federation wheat, the first specifically Australian variety that was both rust and drought resistant.

With projected objects, including William Farrer's industry-changing disease and drought-resistant wheat, historic photographs and a time-worn map, the project aimed to reconsider the complex histories of the National Museum's objects against the backdrop of Country.

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"Really, the central idea behind this project was to look at land use over time, and some of the great achievements we have made, but also some of the other sides of those stories," McEwan said.

"With great achievements come other perspectives and other dimensions, some of them not so positive.

"And instead of taking conflicts as the main outcome of these things, how do we hold them, nurture space, in order to have dialogue, in order to have conversation, in order to enrich ourselves through that process of conversation, and maybe find some solutions along the way."

National Museum director Mathew Trinca said the exhibition encourages people to see the Museum's collection in new ways. Particularly since some of the items that were projected into the fog are on display in the National Museum's Landmarks gallery.

"Haunting is a fascinating body of work that encompasses photography, video and text. Demonstrating how objects and stories can be brought to life, this exhibition provokes various interpretations of the past and its ever-unfolding consequences in the present," Dr Trinca said.

Haunting will be at the National Museum of Australia until April 30.

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