The Waking Dreams of Phantasmata Traumata
Commissioned by @formaartsmedia and the art collection @salforduni it premiered @balticgateshead before having subsequent showings in Glasgow and Germany. But this is the first time its been shown in the US. We filmed it at Tel Megiddo in Israel, a historic site that we described at the time as 'a nexus of metaphysics and geopolitics'. There is a brooding, foreboding violence which runs quietly through the work and has become only more pertinent in light of the genocidal actions of the IDF taking place in Gaza, about a hundred kilometres away from where we were filming.
The Waking Dreams of Phantasmata Traumata
March 28 2024 - May 09 2024
Opening reception: Thursday March 28, 4:30–6:30pm
Does an artwork dream? Let’s imagine that the material, the medium of a created thing can also be a medium of another kind. A mystic, a clairvoyant, a soothsayer that augurs better futures, purges injuries of the soul, and connects us with the unhappy ghosts of our cruel world. The artwork as medium might be a channel to awaken other pasts (and the pasts of others), transform the present, and reshape what is to come. We might be soothed, healed, redeemed, but fear that we cannot. Perhaps the dream begins as a nightmare. These are, after all, times of plague. The Waking Dreams of Phantasmata Traumata explores the psychic lives of artworks when the artist is forgotten. The exhibition presents supernatural collaborations, invitations for paranormal visitation, psychic predictions, and uncanny mediations. Join us at the Art Gallery of the College of Staten Island for an exhibition of paintings, objects, moving image, and otherworldly guests.
Contributing artists
Susan Bee
Nancy Bowen
Kerry da Silva Cox
Nick Crowe and Ian Rawlinson
Gallery for Ghosts
Hilma’s Ghost
Melinda Kiefer Santiago
Christopher Santiago
Francisco Soto