news.artnet.com: People have believed in ghosts since time immemorial. Our enduring fascination with these spooky spectres has seen them haunt all manner of popular media, from folklore to film, and art. But, trapped between our earthly realm and whatever awaits, ghosts are often felt as an intangible presence. Only sometimes are sightings reported, so how best to represent the supernatural?
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When I was little I had a fascination with ghosts, which most likely stemmed from the Harry Potter series so this article was super fun for me! I love the concept of depicting the un-depictable. I personally loved The Phantom Hunter piece. I think it does such a good job blending the environment of the piece with the abstract figure. I also of course loved the sheet with the shoes as that is what I associated with Ghosts growing up. I recently learned about hidden mother photography, where a mother would sit with a sheet on her head in order to capture a photo of a child. This way the child would be able to sit still for the long exposure. This old tradition reminds me so much of the modern day depiction on ghosts. I also loved how the article didn't just show physical visual art but also photography throughout the years.
I usually don’t like ghosts, horror stories, or anything spooky, but for some reason I read this article and I found this exhibition to be very interesting. What stood out to me is how the way people visualize ghosts has shifted so much throughout history and across cultures. It makes ghosts feel less like monsters and more like reflections of what humans fear, remember, or hope for. I like how the curator highlights ghosts as symbols of memory or unresolved history rather than just supernatural beings. It shows how art can express feelings or experiences that are difficult to put into words. The connection between ghosts and technology, especially photography and projection, also shows how our tools for seeing shape what we believe is real. Even though I don’t gravitate toward spooky imagery, I find it meaningful that depictions of ghosts tell us so much about human nature, emotion, and imagination.
Halloween is over, but I think ghosts are worth talking about. Much like dragons, many cultures across the world have their own version of invisible people and the spirits of the dead walking the earth. I think this art exhibit really highlights this breadth of interpretations that “the ghost” has had over the centuries. From cartoonish sheets draped over nonexistent frames to spectral images of transparent people walking amongst the living, there is no end to the way ghosts can be depicted or what they can represent. I like the really avant-garde depictions of ghosts shown here, like Georgiana Houghton’s The Spiritual Crown of Annie Mary Howiit Watts, which shows the kind of spiritual chaos the presence of a ghost represents. I think this conceptualization of ghosts is really interesting as chaotic breaks to the natural order. At their core, ghosts are unnatural and supernatural, with artists pushing artistic boundaries to represent them echoing this distinction. I like this collection of art as it represents ghostly depictions across history and it makes me wonder where art about ghosts will go in the future.
I have, and have had for a good many years, a major fascination with ghosts and the imagery repeated to them. As a kid ghost stories really scared me, and I live in a very old house that I’ve always felt might be a little bit haunted. However as I got older I started being more curious than scared(thought to be honest sometimes i would read ghost stories and then not be able to sleep). I find the prevalence of dead spirits in various cultures quite intriguing, and it’s really cool how every culture has represented the same idea in many different ways. there’s obviously the white sheet type of ghost that is very halloween, but to be honest if ghosts actually did exist this would probably be one of the least likely ways they would appear visually if they did appear visually at all. The art showcased in this specific piece was super interesting and reminded me that i’d love to learn more about ghosts.
As someone who is deeply interested and has studied/studies death mythology and folklore for fun, this article immediately piqued my interest. I myself have made a lot of art in relation to spirits and ghosts, whether that be through writing worlds and characters, to drawing said worlds and characters, to just drawing freely. Seeing various other interpretations here was super interesting, and it was actually funny seeing that I recognized these practices and even some artwork. I definitely think that all of this information is especially useful for character, costume, and scenic design. It can even extend beyond those, but seeing how throughout many generations we as humans have visually represented these beings, and then adding our own spin onto it as new artists, is important. I myself have played around with a lot of different ways to depict ghosts. I’ve put some of my undead characters in flowy, long outfits, and used those details to accentuate their translucence and give an otherworldly, wistful, and distant feeling to them. However, other times, I’ve played with the idea of not depicting spirits as translucent and distant, wistful presences, but as more real and, well, present. Playing with ideas of them being more physical, but the fact that they are dead is very clear, such as fatal wounds showing on their skin, or dead, distant eyes. This distinguishes the attitudes of these undead and their personalities/feelings in death. Of course, I am not the first to do this, and I have been inspired by many artists before me. This is all just to say that it is important to keep passing these traditions down so new artists can play with these ideas of how to depict spirits and ghosts.
I do think that generally the art that is included is very interesting and art about ghosts is quite thought provoking. But I expected this article to reference spirit photography of the Victorian period more, which is something I find fascinating. The way early photographs were made created the opportunity to add faint images to photos because of long exposure time and so spirit photography was super popular coinciding with a time that was generally very obsessed with the occult. The image that stands out most to me from this article is the painting of the phantom hunter. While I like the more modern art type takes on ghosts they just don’t resonate with me the same way that the older works do. The abstract piece is specifically interesting to me because it feels a very universal and timeless way to describe ghosts and the feelings they evoke.
I think that humanity’s fascination with ghosts comes from our fascination or fixation on death. Death feels overwhelming and permanent, and no matter if it’s a spooky ghost or the ghost of a loved one, I think that we always find some modicum of comfort in feeling that those who are gone never truly leave us. I’m also curious if the idea of ghosts being white is an idea that has existed cross-culturally, or if that is a westernized idea that has since been adapted into global culture. Why do we see ghosts as white? Is it from white smoke? Mist? The opposite of the color of mourning- which again, is only black in Western civilization? I think that so often when we look at how things are portrayed over history, we often forget that we’re seeing a lot of different cultural perspectives and histories that have merged or distorted over time.
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