Typical art exhibitions might feature calming landscapes and quiet spaces for reflection. “The Horror Part 2: A Haunting” is not a typical exhibition. Breaking convention, it invites audiences to confront the things that haunt them — both personally and collectively — and to question whether society is learning from its past mistakes.
On view at the SP/N Gallery until Nov. 22, this exhibition builds on last year’s showcase. While Part 1 focused on iconic horror imagery, Part 2 takes a more subtle and evocative approach, using history itself as its primary source of terror.
“It feels like we are not learning any lessons from the past and cycling through the same things over and over again,” Danielle Avram, director and co-curator of the gallery, said. “It’s never a smooth path: we are always moving forward struggling, moving struggling.”
Avram said that this feeling of being haunted connects with a modern audience living in a time of rapid technological change and widespread uncertainty.
“We are often feeling that we are one step away from something really bad happening,” Avram said. “There is just so much that we don’t know right now, and I feel that haunts a lot of us.”
While the gallery may seem like a haven for horror enthusiasts, Avram believes the power of such an exhibition is its ability to change perceptions by helping every viewer find a single point of connection.
“It really comes down to talking to them about it and getting people to find one thing they feel connected to,” Avram said.
This philosophy is reflected in the diverse range of media on display, from videography and photography to material sculptures. The gallery itself is a character in the show; a purposeful emptiness, punctuated only by light from projections and sounds from the artworks, creates a sensation of isolation and focus.
The artists’ works explore this theme of the undefined and the unsettling from unique angles. Ever Baldwin presents shaped canvases with large, ornate frames that bridge the world of the painting and our own.
“There’s this sense of shifting and changing and not being sure of definitions, which I think has a lot to do with horror,” Baldwin said. “It’s the idea of things not necessarily being what they seem.”
She delights in the mystery, embracing when viewers see everything from faces to bananas in her amorphous forms.
Tatu Gustafsson, a Finland-based artist, showcases photography from a nine-year project involving roadside weather cameras. He never intended his work to be scary, but public perception labeled it with a “serial killer vibe.” Gustafsson doesn’t mind, preferring his work to be a Rorschach test for the viewer. The project also taught him about human kindness, as passersby would often stop to check if he was OK.
Célia Hay, a filmmaker from France, incorporates “folk horror” in her three short films, which explore rituals and metaphors for grief and escape. “I was trying to think of ways of dealing with grief and making sense of what is lost and what you never had in one’s own way,” Hay said. She strives to make her personal stories resonate universally.
For these artists, the practice of art has provided life lessons beyond technical skill. Hay has learned to “measure success in a way that makes sense for me,” while Gustafsson experienced unexpected moments of human connection.
Ultimately, the exhibition posits that horror is a versatile lens for examining difficult truths. As Avram concludes, “Horror is a really great way to grapple with difficult concepts because it can encompass everything from the totally mundane to the supernatural.”
The SP/N Gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday. Hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, and 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays.
