Charizard

Before Ghosting I’d been feeling that I could never go to LADA again or apply for any opportunities or even use their archive. But Ghosting another institution – that took on the symbolic role of ‘the live art institution’ – actually helped a lot overcome that fear.
– Workshop participant

‘Ghosting’ is a somatic practice of disembodiment, in which we dress up as ghosts (i.e. cover ourselves in scrap materials) to pretend that we can no longer be seen.

As part of this practice, we led a two-day workshop at Artsadmin’s Toynbee Studios in London, in which we supported over twenty artists, thinkers and cultural workers to dress up as ghosts and haunt this institutional space. We used this practice to explore the disenfranchised position of freelance cultural workers in institutional spaces, alongside ‘histories of bad feeling’ that persist without address.

The project culminated in a digital publication, Ghosting.zip, which collated research and reflection with the many entrancing and questionable photos taken by the ‘ghosts’ over the two days. The publication also includes a text by the dance artist Mira Kautto, in which she reports on her own development of ‘ghosting’ practice in Finland. 

Our continued refections on Ghosting also form part of our lecture-performance Uninvited Guests, which thinks about how individuals understand their sense of belonging within publicly-funded arts spaces.

Workshop: Commissioned by Live Art Development Agency, through their DIY programme. The workshop took place at Artsadmin in London in 2019.

Digital publication: Ghosting.zip was originally published by Unbound; you can download a free copy here. 

The practice of ‘Ghosting’ originally developed through time at Dance4 in Nottingham, in the company of Hamish MacPherson, Mira Kautto, Elinor Lewis and Hannah Parsons. 

Photos by the ghosts.