Liberty Leading the Ghosts - A product of remote viewings in July and August 2020. BALM subjects witnessed a war on the astral plane among two factions of ghosts after the second (future) mass burial in southern Illinois.
Testimonials from Those Depicted (Veterans of the Astral Plane War, Left to Right):
They called me MAPLE KISMET. I taught 8th grade. Died [REDACTED]. I woke up with a RAPTURIST strangling me. I knocked the RAPTURIST out with the wadded up dreams of a dead 13-year old girl (I found in the dirt next to me). I am one of the best RAPTURIST killers among all the ghosts.
I used to be RANA VERDE. I was a pediatric nurse before. Died [REDACTED]. I joined the ghost army soon after I died in FELIX’s arms. I started to let myself think we could win. Not that there was ever any choice. Wherever we fall a dead tree grows.
I was LATISHA MACKEREL. I held a red flag and watched traffic pass me by. Died [REDACTED]. I was lucky. Got woken up by the LIBRTY ANGEL herself. She explained how the RAPTURISTS were mad because when they died EVERYONE was here. They didn’t want to share the end of their worlds with us.
Name was CLARK BOWA. I delivered “pizza” for Papa Johns during the plague. Died [REDACTED]. When I came to, I saw a RAPTURIST pulling out the intestines of a fellow ghost. When it noticed my gaping, I stuttered to ask -- W -- Why? It replied, these are my intestines now.
Name is ABELINE OXI. Worked @ Walgreens. Died [REDACTED]. I died my second-death early on the ASTRAL PLANE -- in the great war among the newly dead - between the RAPTURISTS and the HAUNTERS. I woke up on a grid and joined the screaming. I was new. I didn’t know that was how the RAPTURISTS found us. They ghost-killed me. This tree grew out of my pubic mound.
Materials - Acrylic, ink, marker, graphite, drawings, digital prints, photocopies, stickers, collage, road maps, Post-It notes, coffee, mixed-media, cotton and ash on unstretched canvas (2020)