GHOST VISIONS
October 2021 • ShockBoxx Project, Hermosa Beach CA
PRESS
whitehot: Joy Ray’s Duplicated Spirits
LA Weekly: Meet Mixed Media Painter Joy Ray
Diversions LA: Joy Ray Haunts in Ghost Visions
Diversions LA: Joy Ray Will Conjure the Other Worldly
ARTIST STATEMENT
The paintings and sculptures in Ghost Visions blur the boundaries between the seen and unseen worlds.
These new works incorporate thrift store clothing and vintage fabrics, haunted by secret histories. I use glyphs, redaction marks, ouija-inspired lettering, and “ghost signatures” to explore the limitations of language. With the alchemy of rusted metal and “ghost impressions” made by applying paint to fabric on uneven surfaces, I invite collaboration from the shadow side.
On my expeditions into the unknown, I draw inspiration from the cut-up method of William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin, Jack Whitten’s slab paintings, Surrealist frottage and grattage, and Kameelah Janan Rasheed’s divination-based art practices, with a sidecar of ghost stories, Tarot, and automatic writing.
Ghost Visions reflects and continues my lifelong fascination with the mysteries of existence, consciousness, and memory.
Joy Ray, September 2021