Phenomena of Materialization (2009-2011)

 

In 1914, a German physician documented Eva C., a famous Spiritualist medium who produced ectoplasm — mysterious physical forms extruded from her body during séance. His photographs record something between sculpture and bodily secretion, between evidence and impossible fact. Phenomena of Materialization is constructed from thousands of fragments cut from multiple editions of that document.At a distance these large-scale collages read as painted or inked surfaces — atmospheric, bodily in scale. Approaching, the surface gives way: holes, fingerprints, artifacts of the printing process, fragments of Eva C. herself emerging and receding. The materialization the title promises happens in the viewing — ephemeral traces assembling into physical presence, fragments cohering into form.