Shannon Taggart

Shannon Taggart, Dan Aykroyd, Andreas Fischer, Tony Oursler

"American artist Shannon Taggart (born 1975) became aware of Spiritualism as a teenager, when her cousin received a message from a medium that revealed details about her grandfather's death. In 2001, while working as a photographer, she began taking pictures where that message was received--Lily Dale, New York, home to the world's largest Spiritualist community--proceeding to other such communities as England's Arthur Findlay College. Taggart expected to spend one summer figuring out the tricks of the Spiritualist trade. Instead, Spiritualism's mysterious processes, earnest practitioners, and neglected photographic history became an inspiration. Her project evolved into an eighteen-year journey that has taken her around the world in search of 'ectoplasm'--the elusive substance that is said to be both spiritual and material. With Séance--part documentary, part ghost story--Taggart...