£3.80 | AUGUST 2015 ISSUE NO 4130
‘I SEE DEAD PEOPLE’ SAYS WIN TOP-SELLING NOVELIST A ONE-TO-ONE SANTA MONTEFIORE SKYPE READING WITH JAMES VAN PRAAGH
HOW TO CULTIVATE CLAIRVOYANCE AIR CHIEF BY SCRYING MARSHAL LORD DOWDING: THE PHOTOGRAPHS SPIRITUALIST OF THE DEAD? WHO SAVED CLASSSIC SPIRIT BRITAIN IMAGES UNDER SCRUTINY
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KERRY KATONA 08> CALLS IN TEAM OF EXORCISTS 9 770033 280014 FEATURE
art viewed from both sides of the vEIL
Photo: ©Sylvain Deleu
TWO art exhibitions, one in London and the other in San London’s College of Psychic Studies, of Francisco, have had visitors contemplating the afterlife from which the artist is a member, to help bring them back to Earth. very different angles. On loan were some rare spirit Entering Karen Mirza’s first solo exhibition Phyllis Mirza – but to open up a much photographs, séance notes from the visit at fig-2, in the ICA Studio on London’s broader dialogue with those who view her to the College made by Scottish physical prestigious Mall, just a short royal carriage work. medium Helen Duncan, and the original journey down the road to Buckingham editions of two controversial books, Art Palace, was like stepping into a physical The idea, she explains, was to “bring forth Magic and Ghostland, edited by medium séance. a confluence of occult and radical politics” Emma Hardinge Britten. There was even that is a further step in experimenting with an original copy of Psychic News (dated The room was bathed in red light and her ongoing exploration of “positions that April 1, 1944) reporting on Helen Duncan’s among the exhibits was a huge image concentrate on women, bodies and sites of trial at the Old Bailey. of physical medium Stanislawa P (later resistance”. identified as Stanislawa Tomczyk) with “The Ectoplasm of Neoliberalism” exhibition ectoplasm exuding from her mouth. This Her large scale collages were drawn was staged from July 6-12. photograph was taken in 1913 during test from her research in radical and psychic séances with Baron von Schrenck-Notzing, archives, and her set of photo-prints were Meanwhile, coincidentally, an exhibition the German psychical researcher. described as “outcomes of studies of called “After Life” was opening in San dissonance”. Francisco on July 10 at Incline Gallery, on What is interesting about the image Valencia Street, a former funeral home. the artist has selected is that Schrenck- Neoliberalism, she says, “is in the first The gallery gets its name from the ramps Notzing covered the medium’s face with instance a theory of political economic used to move caskets and gurneys to the netting to demonstrate that the ectoplasm practices that proposes that human well- embalming room. was capable of passing through it and was being can best be advanced by liberating not, therefore, a physical substance that individual entrepreneurial freedoms and “After Life” is described as “an intriguing the medium was regurgitating. skills within an institutional framework exploration of the possibility of life after characterised by strong private property death, and a way to honour the dead by Attention is not drawn to this and for rights, free markets and free trade”. allowing them the pleasure of interacting good reason. The purpose of Karen with the living”. The exhibits on show, by Mirza’s exhibition, titled “The Ectoplasm If these concepts were difficult for artists Fernando Orellana and Al Honig, of Neoliberalism” was not to expound exhibition visitors to absorb without time are designed to give the “living-impaired” on Spiritualism and psychic phenomena for quiet reflection, there were on hand – in other words, the dead – a way to – though she is the daughter of medium several rare exhibits from the archives of participate in the connected living world.
34 PSYCHIC NEWS | AUGUST 2015 FEATURE
Photo: ©Sylvain Deleu HER BELL Photo: Fernando Orellana
THEIR WORDS Photo: Fernando Orellana PSYCHIC NEWS | AUGUST 2015 35 FEATURE
HIS RECIPES Photo: Fernando Orellana
Orellana’s creations are interactive The other works on show in “After Life”, observe the world outside. machines built around personal artifacts created by Honig, are elaborate that respond to factors that are detected sculptures housing the cremated remains “After Life” runs from July 10 - ® by ghost-hunters: changes in temperature, of the departed. Each “urn” also August 8 at Incline Gallery, Valencia infrared light or electromagnetism. has a “window” so that the dead can Street, San Fransisco.
When the device detects sudden activity in two out of three of these triggers, it “activates the object for the dead” says “After Life” curator Valerie Leavy.
For example, in a piece called His Minerals the machine will light a stick of incense when it senses the ghost of a deceased man who left behind a collection of minerals and handmade incense. Another piece, Her Bell is composed around a brass bell left behind by a deceased bell collector. The bell rings when it senses a paranormal trigger.
Orellana argues that the living get plenty of devices to help make their lives easier and the dead deserve the same consideration. HIS LIGHT Photo: Fernando Orellana 36 PSYCHIC NEWS | AUGUST 2015