With original essays by art historian Susan L. Aberth and curators Simon Grant and Lars Bang Larsen, this publication explores the anti-authoritarian political agendas of nineteenth-century Spiritualism and the movement’s close association to the history of feminism, as well as its continued influence on contemporary practitioners. Spanning diverse artistic approaches, Not Without My Ghosts offers a unique insight into the ties that bind spirit and mediumistic art across the centuries.
Artists featured include William Blake, Marjorie Cameron, Bonnie Camplin, Ann Churchill, Ithell Colquhoun, Louise Despont, Casimiro Domingo, Madame Fondrillon, Chiara Fumai, Madge Gill, Susan Hiller, Barbara Honywood, Georgiana Houghton, Anna Mary Howitt, Victor Hugo, Augustin Lesage, Pia Lindman, Ann Lislegaard, André Masson, Grace Pailthorpe, František Jaroslav Pecka, Olivia Plender, Sigmar Polke, Lea Porsager, Austin Osman Spare, Yves Tanguy, Suzanne Treister and John Varley.
Bonnie Camplin (b.1970) lives and works in London. Studied BA in Film and Video and a postgraduate degree in Advanced Photography at Central St. Martin’s School of Art. Camplin is known for her films Hallo Hero (2003), Good Health (2003) and Special Afflications by Roy Harryhozen (2006). She has exhibited nationally and internationally and has collaborated with Enrico David, Mark Leckey, Lucy MacKenzie and Paulina Olowska. For eight years, she was a para-theatrical producer, director and performer of experimental club nights in Soho, London as well as working across the disciplines of drawing, film-making, music and writing. Select projects include Soundworks, ICA, London (2012). She is represented by Cabinet Gallery, London and Galerie Cinzia Friedlaender, Berlin.
Susan Hiller (b. 1940, Ohio, USA) lives and works in London. Hiller studied film and photography at The Cooper Union, New York and archaeology and linguistics at Hunter College, New York. Hiller uses her background in archaeology and anthropology to inform her practice, which typically comprises audio and visual technology. The artist uses cultural artefacts as the starting point for her work to explore near death experiences and collective experiences of the paranormal. Hiller is considered to be one of the most influential artists in the UK. Her recent solo exhibitions include: MOT Gallery, Brussels (2016); Susan Hiller: The Last Silent Movie, FRAC, Franche-Comté (2016); Lisson Gallery, London (2015); Channels, Den Frie, Copenhagen (2014); Resounding (Infrared), Summerhall, The Edinburgh Art Festival (2014); Channels, Samstag Foundation, The Adelaide Festival, Australia (2014); and Provisional Realities, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco (2014). Recent group exhibitions include: Line, Lisson Gallery, London (2016); Art and Anthropology: Ethnografische Bezüge in der zeitgenössischen Kunst Galerie im Kornerpark, Neukölln (2016); British Art Show, Edinburgh (2016); and Sublime: Tremblements du Monde, Pompidou, Metz (2016).
Born 1977 London, Olivia Plender lives and works in Stockholm and London.
Plender’s work often starts with specific moments or developments in social history - what we think we know about the past inevitably shapes what we believe is possible in the future. She is interested in the relationships between gender, power and authority – who claims the right to speak in public, how the ‘rational’ is defined, which voices are taken seriously, and she inversely listen to those voices that are not. For instance, she has recently been collaborating with grassroots feminist organisations on a project about the East London Federation of the Suffragettes, who attempted to establish a model for a new socialist feminist society in one of the poorest areas of the UK. In the resulting artworks, she explores both what we can we learn today from this early-twentieth-century political and educational experiment and how that history has been written.
Selected solo exhibitions include Neither Strivers Nor Skivers, They Will Not Define Us, The Bower, London (2021); Social Construction, Portal, Södertälje Konsthall (2021); Practicing Politics: The Fogelstad Women's Citizenship School 1922–1954, Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm (2019); Olivia Plender, Maureen Paley, London (2016); Many Maids Make Much Noise, ar/ge kunst, Bolzano (2015); Rise Early, Be Industrious, MK Gallery, Milton Keynes (2012); and Rise Early, Be Industrious, Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol (2012). Selected group exhibitions Artissima, Fondazione Torino Musei, Turin (2020); Not Without My Ghosts, Drawing Room, London and touring (2020); At the Gates, La Criée Contemporary Art Center, Rennes (2019); Idiorhythmias: A programme of performances, music, poetry, laboratory and text, MACBA, Barcelona (2019); The Expanded Field, Lismore Castle Arts (2018); At the Gates, Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh and touring (2018); and Under Pressure – On Forms of Authority and Decision-Making Power, frei_raum Q21 exhibition space, Vienna (2018).
Awards and residencies include Lead Faculty/artist in residence – Society is a Workshop, Banff Centre (2013); Arbeitsstipendium Bildende Kunst des Landes Berlin (2012); and Arts Council England, Research and Development Grant (2012).
Born 1958 London, Suzanne Treister lives and works between London and the French Pyrenees. Graduated from Brighton Polytechnic (1978); St Martins School of Art (1981); and Chelsea School of Art (1982).
Treister was a pioneer in the new media field from the early 1990s, making work about emerging technologies, developing avatars and fictional worlds. Her recent projects include HEXEN 2.0, HFT The Gardener, SURVIVOR (F) and The Escapist Black Hole Spacetime. An ongoing focus of her work is the relationship between new technologies, society, alternative belief systems and the potential futures of humanity.
Selected exhibitions include We Never Sleep, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt (2020); Yerevan Biennial (2020); Istanbul Biennial (2019); Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2019); Busan Biennale (2018); Le voyage à Bordeaux de Suzanne Treister - Histoires parallèles et récits excentriques, CAPC, Bordeaux (2018); Quantica, CCCB, Barcelona (2018); Open Codes, Living in Digital Worlds, ZKM, Karlsruhe (2018); As Above, So Below: Portals, Visions, Spirits & Mystics, IMMA, Dublin (2017); alien matter, Transmediale 2017, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2017); You Say You Want a Revolution: Records & Rebels 1966-70, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (2017); HFT The Gardener, P.P.O.W., New York (2016); Liverpool Biennial (2016); Bard Hessel Museum, New York (2016); HEXEN 2.0, Fig-2, ICA, London, England (2015); 10th Shanghai Biennale (2014); and 8th Montréal Biennale (2014).
Selected commissions and Awards include, Digital Commission, Serpentine Galleries, London (2019); COLLIDE International Award, CERN Geneva/FACT UK (2018); and The Spaceships of Bordeaux, Public art project, Commande artistique Garonne, Bordeaux (2013-20).
