My extended study project is concerned with the hauntolgical power of ephemera. The concept of hauntology – feeling nostalgia for a time one has never lived in – looms large over my work. I have appropriated a number of illustrative ideas from ephemera throughout the decades to fabricate a timeless and nameless era to which these works belong. I have included excerpts from two outcomes of my project. The first is record sleeve art for a fictional record label, and the second is a zine intended as a primer of sorts on the topic of hauntology. The latter is accompanied by a series of illustrations designed to give a window into a fictional time and place that is an amalgamation of various aesthetics from throughout the 20th Century.
During times of turmoil and uncertainty ephemera can provide a form of escape, a window into another better, brighter world. I am interested in the notion of creating alternate and parallel worlds through the means of illustrated ephemera; worlds that we can retreat to in times of discomfort and stress.