The Book of Apparitions: navigating absence through objects

Abby Crain | Activation Stage Programs | PLEASE. STAY. TOUCH. Jess Curtis Experiments with Gravity

The exhibition PLEASE. STAY. TOUCH. Jess Curtis Experiments with Gravity includes an Activation Stage led by artists-in-residence whom Curtis mentored. Each artist serves as curator-facilitator-performers for events, performances, and happenings that engage deeply with Curtis’s legacy and archive. Each artist presents a program that also extends Curtis’s commitment to inclusive, innovative performance practice and embodied presence.

“The language of the dead”, writes Haytham El-Wardany, “is that of the tiniest imperishable life forms, persistently sending signals, even from beneath the earth.” Writing can be an extension of the body, and also a form of reading, finding ways to connect with what is missing, to invoke apparitions. What objects around us can help us read the signals from these "imperishable life forms"? How can we connect with what is no longer present? 

We invite participants to bring an object through which they feel the presence or signals of someone or something missing from this world. In bringing our attention to these objects we will create writings and drawings that explore our relationship with absence. We will mourn the loss of loved ones by making a special book to honor them. 

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Abby Crain (she/her) works through transposition of the processes of dancing / dance making / the studio / performance making, into the practice of the essay / the poem / the story / the classroom, and vice versa. Her work is an ongoing, multidisciplinary effort to take note of/ recognize that which is perceived or awakened via sensation, experience, memory, and dreams through formats of writing, dancing, reading, pedagogy, and performance. 

Lorena Marín is an educator and anthropologist from Colombia, currently working as a doula in the Bay Area. 

Erasmo Pantoja is a writer, translator and bookmaker from Colombia. Founder of Biblioteca Popular Bruce Lee, a wandering, dissipating library making handcrafted books since 2016. Pantoja is currently based in Oakland.