Artist submissions sought for The Ghost Tide - a group exhibition at Thames-Side Studios London, curated by Monika Bobinska and Sarah Sparkes. The show evokes ghosts as a migratory tide washed up along the shore of the Thames, historical and cultural baggage in tow. Runs 20 October - 4 November 2018.

The Ghost Tide - a group exhibition curated by Monika Bobinska and Sarah Sparkes - evokes the migratory tide of ghosts washed up along the shore of the Thames, their historical baggage in tow.

Ghosts exist as an idea – ghost, spirit or immaterial part of a deceased person - across cultures all around the world and throughout recorded history. 

The Ghost Tide invites artists to re-imagine the ghost as a cultural phenomenon, presenting works which explore ghosts from diverse organised and vernacular belief systems. 

The show includes sculpture, installation, film, sound, performance and wall based works, as well as a number of public events. 

The Ghost Tide’s location on the Thames, in a fast-changing area of the city, alludes to the presence of artists in this part of London, as a migratory tide of creative flotsam and jetsam which ebbs and flows as the city gentrifies and develops.

We are interested in works of a material nature – sculpture, installation, wall based works etc, though we do have room for some audio visual pieces.

We welcome artists response to the following, but are also open to other interpretations:

• How the idea and aesthetics of the ghost or spirit manifests in different cultures
• The integration of ghost cultures across countries both in belief systems, vernacular beliefs and popular culture
• Ghosts within cultural groups that have been dispossessed, repressed and marginalised
• Ghosts in border regions, edge-lands, margins
• Ghosts and water, maritime histories, folklore, ghosts stories
• Channelling ghosts through technological and physiological means
• New visualisations of contemporary international ghosts
• Works which have a direct reference to the locale of the gallery – the river Thames being a trade and migratory route into the city/ country.  Today, London city airport is located just across the river.  The Thames barrier is close by, built to hold back the flood tide.  Warehouses once containing manufacturing industry are now home to a nebulous, temporary and migratory group – artists. 

About the Curators 

Sarah Sparkes is an artist curator. She leads the visual arts and creative research project GHost, curating an on-going programme of exhibitions, performances and interdisciplinary seminars interrogating the idea of the ghost. GHost events have been supported by Folkestone Biennial, University of the Arts, University of London, FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology), NTMoFA (National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts), Inspiral London and Arts Council of England. Sparkes has published chapters on the GHost project and has lectured extensively on this subject. Her work The GHost Formula, 2016, commissioned by FACT, recently toured to NTMoFA as part of the exhibition No Such Thing As Gravity curated by Rob la Frenais. She is currently undertaking an artist residency, together with Ian Thompson, at Allenheads Contemporary Arts In Northumberland.

https://www.ghosthostings.co.uk/

http://www.theghostportal.co.uk/

Monika Bobinska

Monika Bobinska is the director of CANAL, which organizes exhibitions and art projects in a variety of settings. She is the founder of the North Devon Artist Residency, launching in 2018.

www.canalprojects.info