Susan MacWilliam
The Other Side
2015, Colour, Stereo, 21m
Against a backdrop of artifacts, books and expansive paintings, psychic, remote viewer and visionary artist Ingo Swann (1933-2013) reflects on his role in coining the term ‘Remote Viewing’, the use of co-ordinates in training, and his work as an artist.
Apparatusphere
2014, Installation
Images of experimental testing apparatus from the extrasensory perception laboratory of parapsychologist Dr JB Rhine (1895-1980) manifest as spherical globes teetering on a landscape of vinyl veneered plywood platforms. Apparatusphere makes allusion to the mechanical orrery.
Aldous's Eyes
2014, Colour, Silent, 4m 47s
Glass eyeballs rattle, rotate, slide and multiply. Reflecting on the narrative explorations of Aldous Huxley's 1942 book The Art of Seeing in which the writer discusses the Bates Method of improving eyesight, Aldous’s Eyes is a visual exploration of perceptual phenomena.
Test, Test, Test
2014, Photographic Prints
A series of photographic compositions combining archive photographs of hands, from the records of parapsychologist Dr JB Rhine, with images of sculptural spheres from the studio of the artist.
KATHLEEN
2014, B+W, Colour, Stereo, 33m
A childhood accident, the death of a beloved pet and a library of books provide the formative experiences of the young Kathleen. KATHLEEN is an exploration of the existential and the melancholic, an observation of life and death. Born in Derry in 1886 Irish writer Kathleen Coyle died in Philadelphia in 1952.
NOW
2013, Flashing Red Neon
NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW
In urgent insistence and constant demand red neon flashes on and off.
AN ANSWER IS EXPECTED
2013, Colour, Stereo, 65m
Reflecting on the historic ESP (extrasensory perception) and telepathy research of parapsychologist Dr JB Rhine (1895-1980) AN ANSWER IS EXPECTED considers the ways in which we think about our place within the world, our desire to read meaning in coincidence, and the belief that there is more to the universe than simply ‘matter in motion’.
Book Spheres
2013-14, Installation
Indulging in the visual aesthetic of parapsychology book covers Book Spheres presents an expansive vista in which the artist imagines the book as telepathic device 'transmitting' information from writer (sender) to reader (receiver).
AN ANSWER IS EXPECTED
2013, Yellow Gold Neon
AN ANSWER IS EXPECTED
Where Are The Dead?
2013, White Neon
Where Are The Dead? pursues the artist's interest in our constant quest for answers: in giving none, the question is thrown back at the viewer.
Black Dough
2012, B+W, Silent, 13 m
Matt black spheres of non specific scale roll around and interact in a non specific location
Some Ghosts
2009, Colour, Stereo, 38m
A portrait of 82 year old Atlanta based Danish American poltergeist investigator Dr William G Roll (1926-2012). Roll demonstrates tricks with matches and recalls a table levitation he witnessed 40 years earlier.
Put Your Arms Around Me Honey
2009, Artist Pages - CIRCA
1. Amorous Caresses
2. Charlantry of Mediums
3. Some Serious Inquirers
F-L-A-M-M-A-R-I-O-N
F-L-A-M-M-A-R-I-O-N
2009, Colour, Stereo, 17m 13s
Commissioned for MacWilliam's solo exhibition at the 2009 Venice Biennale.
In 1931 a ‘teleplasm’ spelling out the name Flammarion appeared on the wall of a cabinet at a séance in Winnipeg. Poltergeist investigator Bill Roll, poet and writer Ciaran Carson and medium's grandaughter Arla Marshall come together in F-L-A-M-M-A-R-I-O-N and respond to the image of the teleplasm.
The Only Way To Travel
2008, Colour, Stereo, 38m 30s
The Irish trance medium Eileen Garrett first travelled to New York in 1931 on invitation of the American Society of Psychical Research. The Only Way To Travel reveals a world of 1930s high living, the cocktail hour, the rise of the New York skyscraper, and an era of glamorous travel, optimism and new horizons.
Library
2008, Colour, Stereo, 14m 10s
The hum of an air conditioner provides the soundtrack as a camera moves between wide and close shots through dark and light conditions in the Eileen J Garrett Library, Parapsychology Foundation, New York.
Eileen
Eileen
2008, DVD, Colour, Stereo, Synchronised Triple Channel, 29m 53s
Hailed as the world's greatest medium, Eileen J Garrett (1893-1970) founded The Parapsychology Foundation in 1951. In a sequence of vignettes Garrett is conjured up through image and anecdote through the lived experiences of her daughter Eileen and granddaughter Lisette.
Psychic Edit
2008, Colour, Stereo, 14s looped
Psychic Edit presents a strobing edit of archival home movie footage of Eileen J Garrett from the Garrett-Coly personal archives.
13 Roland Gardens
2007, Colour, Stereo, 22mins 30secs
Eileen Coly daughter of infamous Irish medium Eileen J Garrett describes Garrett's 'R101 Airship Seance' of 1930 and their time living at 13 Roland Gardens, London, site of Harry Price's Laboratory of Psychical Research.
Dermo Optics
Dermo Optics
2006, Colour, Stereo, 4mins 9secs
In an underground Parisian cellar the 93 year old Madame Yvonne Duplessis and her colleagues demonstrate Dermo Optical Perception. The artist participates in the experiments with surprisingly good results.
Dermo Optical Cake
2006, Colour, Stereo, 2mins 24secs
A cake commissioned from Zvezda cake shop in Celje, Slovenia is cut dermo optically.
Explaining Magic to Mercer
2005, Installation with Video and framed images
The artist and her 5 year old nephew discuss the bizarre and extraordinary phenomena attributed to the historical figures that have been the subject of her work.
The artist and her 5 year old nephew discuss the bizarre and extraordinary phenomena attributed to the historical figures that have been the subject of her work.
Feelers
Feelers
2005, Artist Pages - Printed Project, Visual Artist Ireland
Blind man's buff, remote viewing, the fainting girl, Kuda Bux, Kathleen Goligher, Helen Duncan, Rosa Kuleshova and Mollie fancher make appearances in this series of four artworks designed for printed publication.
Headbox
2004, Installation of Objects and 3 Videos
The remarkable ability to read with her fingertips, made the young Rosa Kuleshova the subject of intense observation in Russia in the 1960s. Headbox considers the contraptions and devices employed by scientists to prevent Rosa from using her eyes during experimental testing.
Kuda Bux
2003, Installation with Video, B+W, Colour, Stereo, 10mins 40secs
Taking his act to variety shows and making appearances at Radio City Music Hall, the New York mystic Kuda Bux gained fame and notoriety in the 1930s and 40s for his dramatic demonstrations of eyeless sight. Viewed from a 1930s armchair Kuda Bux's acts are restaged and played through a 1950s television within a theatrical open set.
After Image
After Image
2002, B+W and Colour, Stereo, 4 mins 30 secs
Delving into the bizarre and the extraordinary, After Image explores the myth that the last image seen before death is retained on the retina of the eye.
On The Eye
2002, Installation of 3 Projected Videos
Projected images of a lightening storm, ceiling fan and mountain mist flicker, strobe and stutter. Recorded during residencies in New York and Trinidad On The Eye explores photography, visual perception, after image, and the ability of the eye to read depth and movement.
Stereoscopes
1999-2013 Illuminated Slides, Various Series
Creating an intimate experience for the viewer, stereoscopes present a series of 3D images observed through special viewing glasses.
The Persistence of Vision
The Persistence of Vision
2000, B+W and Colour, Stereo, 7mins 40secs
Though bedridden for 50 years, exhibiting multiple personalities and technically blind, the vision of 'The Brooklyn Enigma' Mollie Fancher persisted through her clairvoyant ability. Against a sountrack of thunder (said to have induced deep trances in Mollie), imagery moves from interior and exterior, through New York, Cape Cod and Ohio.
45 rpm
2000, B+W, Silent, 4mins 34secs
Inside a spinning zoetrope a young woman relentlessly rasies her hand to her forehead. The gesture is derived from an earlier work Faint (1999).
Experiment M
1999, Installation with 2 Videos, B+W, Silent, 5mins 43secs
Between 1914 and 1920 Dr William Jackson Crawford researched the mediumistic phenomena occurring at the seances of the Goligher Circle, Belfast. Crawford's relationship to table tilting medium Kathleen Goligher is explored, and the path of Crawford's inquistive eyes is traced as the camera leads the viewer through the seance room.
Faint
1999, Colour, Stereo, 3mins 40secs
Conjuring an image of both the romantic and the sinister Faint presents images of a fainting girl (the artist) set against the sound of bird song. Drawing on mesmerism, trance and hysteria, Faint connects to earlier works exploring spiritualism and materialisation mediums.
The Last Person
1998, B+W, Silent, 10mins 30secs
A strange substance; ‘ectoplasm’, emerges from the medium’s mouth, hands appear and spirits are conjured up. Reflecting on the case of Helen Duncan (1898-1956), a medium from Portsmouth who in 1944 was the last person to be tried and prosecuted under the British Witchcraft Act of 1735.
Earlier Work
1994 - 1997
List, 1994, Liptych 1994, Toilet Mat 1994, DISCO 1995, DISCO INFERNO 1995, Rabbit With Guts 1996, Curtains 1997