Our theme for this year’s Leigh Art Trail was Ghosts which we exhibited at Metal Southend. When we were invited to exhibit in the Clifftown Telephone Museum during October, the month of Halloween, the theme of our books was the natural choice.
We have taken images from our books and reimagined them into a new form. The paper dress was inspired by the Regency style of Princess Caroline, wife of the Prince Regent, who stayed in the now renamed Royal Terrace in the early 1800s.
Each artist took inspiration for their ghost-themed book from a wide variety of subject matter. Read on to find out more…
Nicola Watts – Ghosts
The topic of ghosts has been very inspiring for my love of working with colour, texture, found images from old books, newspapers and magazines, and shots I’ve taken on my travels.
It’s also been a chance to explore the idea of what a ghost is. Are ghosts really lost souls, wandering? Sometimes with good intentions? Playful, even? At other times angry with the life and people they left behind?
I wondered if buildings or the natural environment can gather energies and emotions and store them like a recording to be played over and over again, creating the perception of a presence that we can hunt down?
Even where there are rational explanations for ghosts – sleep paralysis, a mouldy room, electromagnetic fields or infrasound – experiences are still undeniably profound, creating a story to be told.
Jo Bund – Ghostly prints
This quote came from the book Miss Willmott’s Ghosts which initially inspired me…
“The book recalls a world that no longer exists, populated entirely by shadows. A grainy, black and white world in which even major players have become phantoms, sometimes without even a monochrome snapshot to their once famous names.”
Sandra Lawrence (2022)
Miss Willmott loved to take photographs. These now give us a glimpse into her life at Warley Place, where she lived from 1875 until her death in 1934.
Photography began around the 1840s, and during the mid-19th century the Spiritualism movement contributed to the Victorian’s fascination with spirit photography (or ghost photography).
The aim was to capture an impression of someone in the afterlife. Yet, the most likely causes of such ghostly images would likely have been scratches, dust, lens flares, double exposure, and so on, that occurred during the photography process.
Taking inspiration from Miss Willmott’s Ghost, Warley Place, and ghost photography I have created my own ethereal images. Collaging layers of black and white photographs, mono prints, drawings, text and stitch. The resulting artist’s book is composed of seven signatures, bound together with a concertina spine.
Juliet Bryson – Ghosts of Chalkwell Hall
When I found out that Chalkwell Hall was to be our venue for this year’s Art Trail, it seemed an obvious idea to investigate whether there were any ghosts associated with the building.
Using research by writer, artist, and archivist Rachel Lichtenstein* as a starting point, I delved into the history of the Hall.
Chalkwell Hall seems to be unusual. It has been inhabited by a number of different owners and occupiers, as opposed to the “one family” history we often associate with “big houses”.
So my book dips into the lives of the people who are recorded as having once lived or worked in the Hall, as they “talk” to us from the past.
*Rachel’s research is available to download from the Metal Website.
Amanda Jackson – Ghosts
I must confess that this year’s artist’s book has grown in an instinctual way. No one idea has dominated the process of creation, but I have allowed it to develop and suggest to me what my overarching concerns were with the theme ‘Ghosts’.
My first thought was related to the idea of sound waves ‘infrasound’ or the ghost frequency as it has been called — a high-pitched frequency that the human ear does not hear but perceives through a sense of unease, skin pricking, or feeling a cold presence.
How to approach sound in a flat two-dimensional book? Rhythm and repetition seemed to work, something that SEVEN often incorporate in our work.
My second approach was to consider the gothic ghost stories, apparitions in grey, men and women such as ‘The Woman in Black’. Found images often lead the way here and some high gloss fashion shoots stand in for my women in grey and black.
Weaving the workshop produced artwork and the shared art materials we must include, allowed these impressions to build and grow. The result is a book that is a little weird — but then isn’t the idea of ghosts a little out there?!
Kim Saunders – A Miscellany of Ghosts
The title “GHOSTS” was suggested by a previous member of the SEVEN Collective. But where to begin with such a prompt?
Well, I began with a list. Thinking about ghosts I wrote down whatever sprang to mind. As the list grew and grew, I realised that we use the word ‘ghost’ to describe a great many diverse things.
My enjoyment of researching subjects of interest to me has led me to integrate this into my art practice, which also often features graphic collaged elements and words.
And that, in short, is how I came to the idea of making my Miscellany of Ghosts.
Helen Davis – Hauntings
Are you haunted? Some years ago I was reflecting on some deeply embedded beliefs. Beliefs that were holding me back. Where had they come from? A bit of digging and there it was, a clue — the death of my maternal grandmother.
She’d died when I was five. Obviously I hardly knew her. But then, neither had anyone really — apart from her beloved husband, my grandad Last, that is. He idolised her. Wrote poetry to her. Pined for her until the day he died, laying out her nightdress in preparation for some immortal reunion.
In contrast, the woman my mother and her eleven siblings experienced was earthy. Swearing in spoonerisms. A fan of horror legend Boris Karloff. Superstitious — especially about Tutankhamun. Always in the kitchen, a cigarette hanging off her lip. Turned out she was a touch more mysterious, of course.
And, so my book endeavours to honour my grandmother. Piecing together: my own fragmentary impressions; memories and anecdotes told by others; found items; and words. Words written by my grandfather. Even words recorded by mediums consulted following her death.
Yet, ultimately, I think this book is about haunting. How we’re haunted by our pasts. Our choices. Our guilt. Our memories. Haunted by our ancestors, even…
Further information
The exhibition will be on from 21 October until 22 November 2024. The Clifftown Telephone Museum is based at Capel Terrace, Southend-on-Sea SS1 1EX
