Some years ago, I was given an archive of turn-of-the-century glass negatives from painter and colleague, Josh Dorman. Perfectly timed, they offered an ideal canvas for me to visually synthesize the thoughts and questions that were emerging around my earliest experiences practicing mediumship (communication with the dead). For me, those gloriously moldering glass plates harbored their own intelligence, and I was eager to collaborate with what they had to offer. This work also became a threshold into my understanding of the galvanizing influence that women exerted in the early history of many creative and progressive movements of the 19th Century. It seemed I was being pointed toward a venerable lineage of women who articulated and illustrated their powerful understanding of the invisible aspects of our world through various social movements, literature and visual art.

I have explored many materials in an attempt to communicate the ethereal, often invisible nature of my subjects, but analog photography has been a consistent through-line. The nature of a darkroom in many ways mirrors a traditional séance parlor. Shielded from external light, and dimly illuminated from within; both are liminal spaces where a productive atmosphere can be destroyed in an instant by the presence of white light. Utilizing specialized tools, techniques, and disciplines within the restriction of this analog space, I summon the particular synchronicities that only a darkroom can provide. This work illustrates the unfolding of an intensely interior process; the building of a connection to an obscured reality. The work describes experiences that I often feel defy words. Inviting this practice into my darkroom has revealed qualities and conditions that both activities require, and strengthened the idea that art-making itself can be a form of spirit communication.

MARIANNE McCARTHY
January 2025

Marianne McCarthy is a multimedia artist exploring the subject of anomalous human experience. A native New Yorker, McCarthy holds a BFA from The School of Visual Arts and has completed advanced training in educational modalities from Lincoln Center Education and Visual Thinking Strategies. McCarthy is a member of the Visual Arts faculty at The Spence School in Manhattan, and a volunteer artist at LAND Gallery, a day-habilitation studio for neurodivergent artists. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally including the widely acclaimed Creative Spirits exhibition at the College of Psychic Studies in London. McCarthy enjoys a particularly strong relationship with Curious Matter in Jersey City, NJ where she has been included in many of their signature group exhibitions and published in eight of their catalogs. In 2024, McCarthy was featured in two of Collect Art’s special publications, Mystical World and 101 Contemporary Artists. In November of 2024, she was selected as Curator’s Choice by ArtFluent. Her work can be found in the permanent collection of The College of Psychic Studies in London. She maintains a home studio practice in Brooklyn, NY.