SPECTRAL EVIDENCE, 2021
Spectral evidence is testimony that a person’s spirit or spectral shape is able to appear in a dream or vision at a time when their physical body is elsewhere. It was used during court proceedings in colonial New England to convict numerous people of murder and witchcraft, including during the Salem Witch Trials, with accusers and prosecuters insisting that the devil and witches were powerful enough to send their spirits to lead innocent, religious people astray.
Background photograph by Carol DeGuiseppi; caroldeguiseppi.com
"Nunca Jamás" performed by Sad Songs, written by Oscar Chávez; soundcloud.com/wearesadsongs
Oscar Chavez was one of Mexico’s most beloved leftist musicos, a champion of the everyday human, politicizing traditional Mexican folk music and creating songs of protest throughout the 1960s to highlight systemic inequality. Nunca Jamás tells the story of the universal gloom of pain, the labyrinth that is romantic love, and the price of regret (Sad Songs). Chávez passed away on 30 April 2020 from COVID-19. He was 85.
Watch the ritual at tinyurl.com/spectralevidence
Find the Print + Votive Candle Ritual Set here (10% of proceeds are redistributed to Black and Pink)
About the Artist:
In their interdisciplinary practice, Vin Caponigro blends accessible and egalitarian concepts with ritual and performance to explore ideas of restriction and reproduction through writing, performance, and the creation of multiples. Caponigro’s research includes how those in power have used storytelling and reproducible media to control history, and how marginalized communities have used independent publishing to tell their own stories and fight back against oppressive systems.
Before its dissolution in 2017, Caponigro was a founding member of the non-anonymous W.I.T.C.H. Chicago. Caponigro frequently facilitates workshops and speaks on panels, recently at Harvard University, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Emerson College, the University of Kentucky, Oberlin College, and NYU Florence. They have facilitated numerous participatory performances, recently at Spaceus: Harvard Square, the Cincinnati Art Book Fair, the Future in Minneapolis, and in Boston Common. Caponigro has attended residencies in Estonia, Sicily, and the United States, including Zygote Press, ACRE, the Wassaic Project, and the Women’s Studio Workshop. In addition to solo exhibitions in Chicago and Baltimore, Caponigro’s work has been included in two-person and group exhibitions at the Chicago Cultural Center, Beverly Art Center, the Highland Park Art Center, the Chicago Artist Coalition, and the Nemeth Art Center.
Caponigro currently lives and works on occupied Massachusett and Wampanoag land, where they operate Snake Hair Press, an independent publisher of zines and multiples.
