Chris Dorosz, Séance Room, 2021–2023, detail.
In “The Undead Archive,” the link between the historical material and the contemporary artwork feels unforced and compelling. For Keshavjee, the Hamilton séances themselves can be seen as a form of interactive performance art: they used visual effects, music and sound, ritual and repetition. The 21st-century artists respond by playing up the spectacle of the séance, playing around with the sculptural malleability of ectoplasm, and leaning into the innate spookiness of photography, video and even virtual reality.
January 11, 2024
