Institutional News, Usdan

Art New England Highlights Queer Paranormal

Art New England featured Queer Paranormal (an exhibition concerning Shirley Jackson and The Haunting of Hill House), which was on display at Usdan Gallery and across Bennington's campus from October 29 to December 7, 2019.

Photo of a bundle of sage

Queer Paranormal is a Two Chairs project curated by Jillian Brodie, Cindy Smith, and Rachel Stevens, with Anne Thompson, director of Usdan Gallery. 

"In their exhibition Queer Paranormal (an exhibition concerning Shirley Jackson and The Haunting of Hill House), curatorial collective Two Chairs draw a parallel between the spirits that haunt Shirley Jackson’s famed novel and queerness—the unusual, the alternative, the strange," wrote Emily R. Bass in Art New England.

In Queer Paranormalthe implicit themes in Shirley Jackson’s Haunting of Hill House are made explicit. 

Art New England

"In their words, 'Asserting that the paranormal is queer opens up a range of possibilities in relation to its routine constituent—the normal.' Stating that the supernatural forces in Hill House are queer provides deeper insight into the role the paranormal plays in the book and in Jackson’s life."