{"title":"Christine Burgin Gallery","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780997645668","title":"Margaret Watts Hughes: Sound May Be Seen","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eEthereal and enigmatic glass slides preserve the resonance of Hughes’ voice in rippling, organic compositions \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe acclaimed Welsh singer and philanthropist Margaret Watts Hughes (1842–1907) was one of many inventors of her day fascinated by the visual documentation of sound. Her \"eidophone\" comprised a tube attached to a chamber covered in rubber, or \"diaphragm.\" Hughes covered a glass slide with grains of sand or coarse pigment, then saturated it with water or milk. By singing into the device, the vibrations of her voice would etch out patterns onto the disc: an artistic rendering of the scientific principle of standing-wave resonance. Her \"Voice Figures,\" as she called them, ranged from primitive patterns to designs resembling flowers, seashells and other natural phenomena. While Hughes valued her discovery for both its scientific and spiritual implications, leaders of the Theosophical movement saw her work as a means of making visible the invisible world.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eSound May Be Seen\u003c\/i\u003e presents selections from Hughes’ original 1891 publication of the \"Voice Figures\" and a rare surviving set of her glass slides, alongside contemporary reactions to her captivating and ultimately enigmatic work.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56295388512629,"sku":"9780997645668","price":21.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780997645668_8942394e-c8f1-46d4-95f8-5b180cb8eb5d.jpg?v=1786016238"},{"product_id":"9780997645644","title":"Richard Foreman: No Title","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eCryptic, lyrical and philosophical words from a paragon of experimental New York theater, juxtaposed with the haunting maquettes he created for his plays\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAn avant-garde comrade of Jonas Mekas, George Maciunas, Jack Smith and others, Richard Foreman (born 1937) was at the forefront of downtown New York’s experimental theater scene of the 1960s. He wrote and directed more than 80 verbally and visually singular productions with his Ontological-Hysteric Theater company in a career that spanned 45 years. Foreman’s visually arresting plays made heavy use of static tableaux, frantic choreography, projected text and Foreman himself sitting in front of the stage operating the lights and sound. While Foreman has published many of his scripts, \u003ci\u003eNo Title\u003c\/i\u003e is a text unlike anything preceding it. Handwritten on a series of note cards, these aphoristic declarations and philosophical asides hover between being a stream-of-consciousness dialogue and a message sent from another world. Foreman’s wonderfully elliptical words are counterposed with photographs of the mystifying diorama-like maquettes that he created while staging a number of his plays.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56295636369781,"sku":"9780997645644","price":21.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780997645644_5049ee40-e227-442a-a264-b3d7b0d48d5f.jpg?v=1786016235"},{"product_id":"9780997645637","title":"Thomas Wilfred: Clavilux and Lumia Home Models","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWilfred’s pioneering and strangely prescient musical instrument predates television, video art and psychedelia\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eInventor, designer, artist and musician Thomas Wilfred (1889–1968) devoted his life to the creation of a new art form—\"Lumia,\" or the art of light. He invented his own version of a color organ (a term he disliked) and dubbed it the Clavilux, from the Latin meaning \"light played by key.\" After a successful international tour in the 1920s, Wilfred reinvented these large-scale performances as self-enclosed light shows for domestic entertainment. While they enjoyed a short commercial life, Wilfred’s aesthetically elegant and interactive Clavilux and Lumia home models soon found their way into storied collections. His work was included in the Museum of Modern Art’s 1952 exhibition \u003ci\u003e15 Americans\u003c\/i\u003e, where it was seen by many artists who would work with light as their medium in the 1960s and ’70s.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eClavilux and Lumia Home Models\u003c\/i\u003e presents a stimulating collection of archival material culled from the Wilfred archive at Yale University and other sources, including Wilfred’s never-before-published sketches.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56312018108789,"sku":"9780997645637","price":21.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780997645637_b95aca9a-c0b7-4f86-809b-390a8ef628c1.jpg?v=1786016234"},{"product_id":"jackie-gleason-library-of-the-paranormal","title":"Jackie Gleason: Library of the Paranormal","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"I want to make hypnotic therapy and psychology my livelihood when I get out of this racket…And I'm going to spend as much time as possible investigating psychic phenomena.\" —Jackie Gleason, \u003ci\u003eParade\u003c\/i\u003e, 1952\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eComic legend Jackie Gleason (1916–87) was one of the biggest, most beloved and best paid stars of his time. His role as Ralph Kramden in \u003ci\u003eThe Honeymooners\u003c\/i\u003e remains a veritable classic of television's early days. As big as his star was, Gleason never shied away from one of his favorite, nonmainstream topics: the occult. A high school dropout with a photographic memory and a major case of insomnia, he was an avid reader and spiritual searcher who looked for answers in the most unexpected places. Gleason was also a confirmed skeptic who believed that some grand cosmic scheme existed, but he could not say what it might ultimately be.\u003cbr\u003eAdditionally, Gleason amassed a staggering collection of over 3,000 esoteric books, ranging from scholarly studies to supermarket paperbacks, now part of the holdings of the University of Miami Special Collections Library. \u003ci\u003eLibrary of the Paranormal\u003c\/i\u003e lifts the lid on this treasure trove of arcana. A generous selection of colorful and quizzical covers from Charles Fort, L. Ron Hubbard and dozens more are reproduced alongside press excerpts and interviews in which Gleason manages to shoehorn his thoughts on ESP, aliens, life after death and other decidedly off-topic interests, including his failed plans in the early '50s to produce a television show devoted to paranormal experiences.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57483265802613,"sku":"9780997645675","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780997645675.jpg?v=1786178390"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/publisher-christine-burgin-gallery.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}