House of Ghosts exhibition by Wendy Sharpe

Wendy Sharpe's House of Ghosts exhibition at Norman Lindsay Gallery features ephemeral wall paintings, oil paintings, works on paper, light installations and more. The concept of ghosts and the afterlife appears in almost every culture. House of Ghosts explores the intersection of the real and the imagined – the seen and unseen, Imagined figures, spirits, ghosts, memories of people, or some kind of hallucination. Norman Lindsay's beloved older brother, Reg was killed on the western front in France in 1916. Norman was inconsolable. Consequently, he became interested in spiritualism, including the use of a Ouija board to contact his brother, and this created a rift within the Lindsay family. Wendy Sharpe imagines Norman walking around his house, in a state of grief and longing. The theme has a deep connection to Sharpe's own family background. Her grandmother Bessie and her sister Anne were both psychic and were followers of Madam Blavatsky (1831- 1891), a Russian occultist and philosopher. Great-aunt Anne was a well-known psychic and medium in her day, who gave public readings and performances in Russia and the UK.