Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA is hosting a fascinating exhibit September 14, 2024 through February 2, 2025 regarding Spiritism, the Spiritualist movement and ceremonial magick’s theory and practice for communicating with discarnate intelligences.
This fall, the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) invites you to explore the essential role art and objects played for mediums and magicians “communicating” with the dead during the 19th- and 20th-century Spiritualism movement — an era during which people actively debated and wondered, “can spirits return?” Conjuring the Spirit World: Art, Magic, and Mediums is on view at PEM from September 14, 2024 through February 2, 2025 and examines the ongoing human impulse and desire to connect with the departed, as well as our enduring fascination with the supernatural and the otherworldly. Paintings, posters, photographs, stage apparatuses, films, publications and other objects transport visitors to the age of Harry Houdini, Margery the Medium, Howard Thurston and the Fox Sisters. Whether you’re a believer, a skeptic or somewhere in between, visitors will gain a new perspective on the timeless draw of mediums and magicians, séances and magic shows.
“The subject matter, artworks and interactive and performance features of Conjuring the Spirit World reanimate an era that was marked by a curiosity around mortality, an embrace of the mysterious and, fundamentally, a deep yearning for connection,” said Curator-at-Large George Schwartz. “This exhibition is among the first to look at mediums and stage magicians in relation to the Spiritualist movement, a movement which had deep roots here in Salem, Massachusetts.”
Objects from PEM’s collection, several of which have never been exhibited, offer a glimpse into how visual and material culture influenced the perception of Spiritualism at the time and how the legacy of the movement and its concepts surrounding death and the afterlife persist today. PEM works include advertising posters, mourning jewelry and a rapping hand used to conjure spirits. These works are presented alongside key loans from collectors across the country.
On select Saturdays from September 21 through February 2 between noon–3 pm, a theater within the exhibition gallery showcases magic performances by two Salem magicians: Anton James Andresen (the Official Magician of Salem) and Evan Northrup (also a Boston-area theater artist and previous PEM collaborator). Expect storytelling, sleight of hand that illuminate the real stage performers and illusions featured in the exhibition. Videos, silent films and interactive experiences are installed throughout the exhibition to heighten the experience.
Conjuring the Spirit World provides an opportunity to learn about lesser-known aspects and considerations of the era, including how mediumship and magic served as a source of agency and reinvention for women and other marginalized communities; the relationship between science and Spiritualism; and a neuroscientific understanding of belief. The exhibition also explores how pop culture continues to reflect this movement through art, film and performance, including popular games and toys like Ouija boards (made by Salem’s own Parker Brothers), as well as works by contemporary artists, including Tony Oursler, José Alvarez (D.O.P.A.) and Shannon Taggart.
