Jacob Ireland What (of Me) Can Only Be Seen by Others
September 4th - September 19th =
For the mixed media installation What (of Me) Can Only Be Seen by Others, Jacob Ireland draws inspiration from the life and work of occultist Sylvan J. Muldoon. Born in 1903 into a family interested in the occult, at an early age Muldoon claimed to have began undergoing out-of-body experiences (OBE) and was subsequently introduced to the phenomena known as astral projection. In 1929, Muldoon published the book The Projection of the Astral Body, writing most of the manuscript from his bed due to illness which had plagued him since childhood. As the first full volume on the subject, it details numerous ways to acheive and control OBE, otherwise known as astral projection. Along with Muldoon's writings, Ireland pulls from texts by the French writers Marcel Proust and Roland Barthes to create the central piece of the installation. Presenting prose seemingly written by a single author, the text synthesizes excerpts from Muldoon's The Projection of the Astral Body, Proust's Swann's Way (1913), and Barthes' The Neutral (2005), describing an experience of disorientation, contemplation, and an encounter with the unknown.
