During this residency on the unceded land of the Haudenosaunee and Erie people (so called Lily Dale, New York) I was surrounded by those who speak to the dead. I am a writer working on a book that explores 19th and 20th century medical devices and practices used to manipulate queer bodies, but the quiet of the winter season in Lily Dale also inspired me to return to an embroidery project in which I sketch and embroider images of the medical instruments I encounter during my research. My canvas is a hospital gown stamped with the words "Glens Falls Hosp. 49."

My experience as a queer, non-binary person is entangled in the way I personally integrate the research for my book. In addition to the material function of medical instruments as they were originally designed and deployed, the instruments and texts that I handle and examine expose the archive itself as a form of material culture that in turn has the capability of acting on me. In response to this unexpected experiencing, I have turned to embroidery as an alternate way of knowing that engages with the material trauma of handing the archive. Notably, this is a solitary artform that can be done in moments of isolation that likely reflect aspects of the confinement experienced by those queer subjects I encounter. As I physically and aesthetically recreate the medical instruments used to violently shape queer and trans bodies, my hands channel and embody memorials to queer ancestors with my own version of needle and suture. I deeply enjoyed the quiet of Aunt Mary, sitting in front of the fire with Sylvester and Coyo by my side and watching the snow fall outside the windows. I thought a lot about the mediums around me who speak to the dead, and how, through my hand, I allow the dead to speak to me.

Laura Westengard is an Associate Professor of English at the City University of New York. Her book, Gothic Queer Culture: Marginalized Communities and the Ghosts of Insidious Trauma shows how queer culture adopts gothicism to challenge heteronormative and racialized systems and practices and to acknowledge the effects of microaggression and insidious trauma on queer communities. She recently appeared as a "vampire expert" for Vanity Fair's VF Reviews. She is currently researching medical archives for an upcoming book on lesser-known 19th and early 20th-century medical devices that have shaped contemporary understandings of gender and sexuality.

I created and recorded a musical piece while I was staying in the house.

This piece felt completely channeled.

It was my third day in the house, and it was getting cold. Tiffany and I spent some time in a text conversation troubleshooting the fireplace, as I could not get it to function. Eventually, the internet steered me towards something earlier unnoticed in the setup and voila, flames!!!

Later that evening I was sitting by this fire doodling, sketching, and crafting a sound bed in my Elektron machines. Suddenly inspiration struck, and it was urgent. Someone wanted to speak, and I had stumbled into a language which made it possible. Immediately, I set up my camera, turned out the lights, and opened myself up, ready for my collaboration with the past. What flowed through me for the next 10 minutes still gives me chills. Dimensions shifted and I was suddenly sharing space around an ancient fire, with ancient beings delivering ancient wisdom. I hesitate to call myself the translator, because I've still not fully decoded the message, but there's no denying I was the vessel. There's something in the drums that sneak in around 3:18. Slowly they become untethered, morphing this way and that until they completely envelop the piece, speak the loudest, and finally dissolve into steam. The wisdom is clearest to me in these drums. It's a reminder that there is no right way to do things. There never has been, there never will be, and anyone who denies this is destined to spin themselves in circles for eternity. It's also made clear that the unexpected arrival of something new can nudge you, work on you, completely change your path and quite possibly be the answer you seek.

Thank you so much for allowing me to share. I'm honored to be a part of this residency.

Jed Zaeb is an artist who works with word, sound, movement, space, and love.

I became interested in mystical art after seeing Hilma af Klint's retrospective at the Guggenheim several years ago. I've always been fascinated by the occult — knowledge on the outskirts of society that contains deeper truths about life, the universe, and the human condition — and began to incorporate these ideas into my own work. Now, it is my personal ethos in my creative process to assist others in achieving guidance and agency in their lives. When I learned about the “Normalize Talking to the Dead” residency at Lily Dale from Tiffany, I realized it would give me the opportunity to work on a project I'd been wanting to do for a long time.

My most recent gallery show, a collection of original paintings for a Tarot deck I created called MINDSCAPES, included an interactive component in which visitors wrote down deeply personal questions that preoccupied their minds: What do they want to know about this life or the afterlife? What are they afraid of, and how might they need guidance moving forward? After the show, I ended up with a box of 150 handwritten questions: heartfelt, thought-provoking, and surprisingly repetitive. This indicated to me that we are all experiencing a similar level of anxiety. We are at a watershed moment in history, a time of great upheaval and change. People have traditionally looked beyond themselves for guidance during such times: to higher forces, the dead, and their ancestors.

For my NT2TD residency, I compiled the most frequently asked questions from that gallery show and then sat with a few of Lily Dale's extremely generous mediums to see if we couldn’t find some sort of truth or guidance in "response" to them. Then, based on the messages, automatic writing, visions, and other information we got during the sessions, I translated the responses into works of art. I am currently in the midst of this project, called BEYOND WORDS, which will ultimately consist of 20 artworks based on the mediumistic sessions. The materials used for each piece are determined by what the medium and I saw, heard, felt, or discovered during the session. The title of each piece is the question that inspired it.

Nowadays, we live with a lot of fear: a lot of questions and doubts. BEYOND WORDS will allow audiences to participate in the creative process and to exorcise some of the worries that dominate their daily thoughts and keep them awake at night. It's asking for help from beyond ourselves and believing in something greater than our world, which can feel tiny and boxed in. I hope that my collaboration with Lily Dale's distinguished mediums will establish guideposts for modern audiences, allowing them to navigate the future with knowledge from beyond the scope of our consciousness. And none of this would be possible if it hadn't been for Tiffany and her wonderful residency!

John A. Rice is a lifelong artist specializing in oil pastels and the proprietor of J.A.R. Studio, NYC. His work has sold in more than 35 countries worldwide. A skilled Tarot reader, he is also the creator of the popular MINDSCAPES Tarot deck. John’s mission is “to foster healing, introspection, and creativity through otherworldly art—empowering the internal world so that we can enrich our outer world.” Find him on social media @john.a.rice, and be sure to visit www.jarstudionyc.com for more exclusive content.