Anne Eder’s exhibition Sanctuary and Abjuration: Sentinels of the Ghostwood, explores the influence of our natural environment on the stories we tell. Along with her research into fairytales, folklore, and mythology, the artist’s early experiences learning Catholic mysticism, playing unsupervised in the West Virginia mountains, and raising her children as a young single mother all contribute to the narrative she has constructed across the third-floor galleries of The Halide Project in Philadelphia.
The exhibition invites visitors into a fairytale, built from the artist’s woodland scavenging adventures. Within this immersive installation, we first notice two larger-than-life creatures that seem to have materialized from wood, wire, bone, moss, and other plants. Indicating a narrative thread that extends beyond the gallery, a dozen palladium prints of varying sizes portray similar creatures, while others depict the raw foraged materials from which they are made. Created using light-sensitive paper coated with palladium salts, these prints both highlight the artist’s dedication to craftsmanship while providing a narrative bridge between the images and objects within the exhibition.
The installation, constructed like a simple maze, immerses us in art that engages all of our senses. A dozen more images of these creatures, printed on larger matte paper in a subdued green, hang between towering branches. These prints—known as anthotypes, a photographic technique that relies on sunlight to imprint images onto paper coated with plant extracts—give the entire space a subtle woodland scent that deepens our connection to the environment represented. While every element within this tactile exhibition asks to be touched, smaller photographic transparent images grace a light table, unmistakably designed to invite interactive engagement.
For those familiar with fantasy role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, the title Sanctuary, and Abjuration: Sentinels of the Ghostwood suggests that this exhibition is a safe place to play. The works even hold hidden recurring motifs waiting to be uncovered. Similar luminous photographs are dappled throughout the walls of the exhibition, presented in vertical triptychs framed by foraged branches. Like their counterparts on the light table, these backlit images are phytograms, a photographic process that uses sunlight and the internal chemistry of plants to create visible chemical traces and marks on photographic film emulsion.
Eder’s phytograms cast a gentle, ethereal glow and depict friendly spirits who seem to be visiting from the same realm as her gentle monsters. We also discover an array of artifacts that share a thematic connection, including ornate porcelain teeth and a suspended cocoon crafted from wood, wire, mulberry, willow branches, and alpaca wool. As we uncover the intricate connections between the artworks, our experience is transformed into an engaging and fulfilling game.
This exhibition’s larger-than-life creatures, scent-infused prints, interactive elements, and hidden connections work together to provide a safe space for creative exploration. Sanctuary and Abjuration: Sentinels of the Ghostwood is a woodland sanctuary that connects us with the landscape and inspires us to envision the myths it can forge.
Editor’s note: Sanctuary and Abjuration: Sentinels of the Ghostwood is on view at the Halide Project through October 30th, 2023.