Please note this is NOT a ZOOM Lecture but an in person lecture at our museum – tickets include a complimentary glass of Devil’s Botany Absinthe
Doors open at 6:30pm and lecture starts at 7pm
Whether you believe in the paranormal or don’t, Shannon Taggart’s book is fascinating and the photos are haunting! – Uri Geller
Shannon Taggart discovered Spiritualism as a teenager when a medium revealed a family secret about her grandfather’s death that proved to be true. In 2001, while working as a photojournalist, she began taking pictures where that message was received – Lily Dale, New York, the town home to the world’s largest Spiritualist community. She expected to spend one summer figuring out the tricks of the Spiritualist trade. Instead, Spiritualism’s mysterious processes, earnest practitioners, and forgotten cultural history became an inspiration. Her project became a twenty-year odyssey, taking her around the world in search of ‘ectoplasm’ – the elusive substance that is said to be spiritual and material. In this illustrated presentation, Shannon Taggart shares stories and images from her “part documentary, part ghost story” book SÉANCE. The talk will also explore Spiritualism’s connections to art, science, and technology, its relationship with human celebrity, and its intrinsic bond with the medium of photography.
Speaker Bio
Shannon Taggart is an artist and author based in St. Paul, MN, USA. Her images have been exhibited and featured internationally. Her monograph, SÉANCE, with texts by Dan Aykroyd, Andreas Fisher, and Tony Oursler, was named one of TIME’s ‘Best Photobooks of 2019.’ It will be re-released by Atelier Éditions, with an additional essay by JF Martel, in Fall 2022. She is currently working on an illustrated book about the Society for Research on Rapport and Telekinesis (SORRAT), one of the most exotic cases in the history of psychical research.