Spirit Boxes
Entering the Spirit World through Art
I have long had a fascination with the spirit world and the dimensions that may exist beyond my limited human perception. Last year around this time, I created “Spirit Box” from an old quarter-sawn oak clock case I found in New Oxford, Pennsylvania; a pate de verre Eye of Horus I created during a beginner’s glass casting class at the Pittsburgh Glass Center, my own cast glass left index finger, two antique spindles I purchased in an antique shop at Wheeling’s Center Market, and some tintypes I’ve collected. The piece was based on the idea that an instrument like this could capture communications from the other side. The two spindles, which I secured in place with epoxy clay and to which I applied gold foil, held three hand-beaded chains. From these chains hung images of a 19th century boy, woman, and baby; clock face numbers; chandelier crystals; and a clock-winding key. In my mind, these represented captured messages, to which my translucent cast-glass left index finger meaningfully pointed.
I also decorated the inside with constellations, repetitive embroidery patterns, more complete chandelier crystals, and a light that illuminated the Eye of Horus. At the base of the work, I wrote about the eternal nature of love and how it persists outside of time, as do the spirits and the energy signatures they have left behind.
I listen to a lot of paranormal podcasts, including Astonishing Legends, and “Spirit Box”, which sold at Tamarack in late summer 2023, was my attempt to approximate what such an imagined machine might look like. How, I asked, could we tune into the messages from beyond? What would this machine look like? And what might it capture? I wanted it to be more material than the ectoplasmic pictures that (another inspiration) Zoe Beloff created in 2004 with her Ideoplastic Materializations of Eva C.
Fast forward one year. I’m working on a new assemblage, which will be part of an exhibition with photographer Dennis Jones that will open at Towngate Theater in August and will run until November. I was painting ghostly arms and pink poppies on this clock case, which I suspect may have spent much of its life in a tobacconist’s shop. (It has a distinctly woody, spicy, semi-smokey scent, and when I wet the clock walls as I was securing the cyanotypes on the inside late last year, its native scent was overwhelming.)
While working on this assemblage, I was listening (as usual) to the podcast Astonishing Legends. And I was today years old when I learned about the Estes Method, pioneered in part by paranormal investigator Connor J. Randall, who was a concierge and paranormal tour guide at the infamous Stanley Hotel (think: the hotel from The Shining).
I have more to learn about this method, but it confirms that spirit communication via radio waves is—in theory—possible. They call the relevant devices…wait for it….SPIRIT BOXES!....and they scan through AM or FM radio stations at regular intervals and incorporate white noise so that specific words come through in response to questions. My brain must have heard and remembered the phrase Spirit Box and quietly incorporated into its weird little private lexicon. It’s absolutely fascinating to me. So, stay tuned for developments on this as I research this more. In the meantime, more weirdness will develop in this assemblage. It’s inevitable.
In other news, the painting of Nut, the Egyptian sky goddess, is complete. I’m waiting on a shipment of rose quartz and amethyst crystal points to secure to her outer arc. And….I will be attaching a lower arc to her. This will contain an image of her brother and husband, Geb, father of Osiris. Keep watching as it develops. I’m hoping that it will be part of the three-person exhibition, curated by Robyn Maas and located at Trumbull Art Gallery in Warren, Ohio, in May. Details on this will follow soon.
If you’re a paid subscriber, a Behind the Studio Curtain will appear tomorrow, as multiple projects are underway here at SSG Studios!
Until then!
Savannah