Alana Macdougall, Artist and Educator

 

Research Assistant Christina Thomson & University of Winnipeg Art History Professor Dr Serena Keshavjee

 Dr Serena Keshavjee and Research Assistant Christina discussed the curation, preparation and various programming for the upcoming exhibition “The Undead Archive”

The Undead Archive: 100 Years of Photographing Ghosts

An Exhibition Curated by Dr. Serena Keshavjee

 

Winnipeg, MB – Step into a world where the ethereal meets the tangible. The Undead Archive: 100 Years of Photographing Ghostsexhibition, curated by Dr. Serena Keshavjee, brings together historical photographs, contemporary artworks, and scientific documents to explore the intersection where history intertwines with the supernatural, and where art and science converge.

 

One hundred years ago, renowned author and Spiritualist Sir Arthur Conan Doyle visited Winnipeg to give a lecture on communicating with ghosts and spirits. In the audience that night were Winnipeg physician Thomas Glendenning Hamilton, and his wife, Lillian Hamilton, a nurse. The Hamiltons went on to conduct hundreds of controlled séance experiments investigating the possibility of personalities surviving corporeal death. These experiments resulted in a series of captivating photographs, which form the core of The Undead Archive. The Undead Archive and the accompanying anthology, The Art of Ectoplasm, contextualize the photographs from an art historical point of view, revealing attitudes to science and religion after World War I and the 1919 pandemic.

For more information about the "The Undead Archive" exhibition:

https://umanitoba.ca/art/undead-archive