Artist statement:

A year ago, Heidi Hernandez, Michael McCarty and I pulled together an art exhibition with a narrative: At a Halloween party in 1923, young Miss Haley stepped in a magician’s box on stage. She is not to be found when the box is opened moments later. Never seen again. 

This exhibition, Das Kabinett Halloween, has no overt narrative. It is, instead, an homage to German silent films -especially The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (originally titled Das Kabinett); a walk through a darkened attic of forgotten memories; an exploration of a century old Cabinet of Curiosities, an art gallery of unsettling paintings. It is mystery and magic. Dark magic.

It is fleeting motion in your peripheral vision. A stream of subconscious associations.

Michael McCarty was not directly involved in this exhibition, but his presence is felt throughout (he is working on several new books and didn’t have a moment to spare). And so are the ghosts that still haunt the Standard Hotel building -now the German American Heritage Center and Museum.

To better penetrate the deeper darkness in the dark of the gallery, bring a flashlight (okay, your smart phone :)).

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Addendum (writing originally in invisible ink) 

This is my 17th consecutive Halloween art exhibition on All Hallow’s Eve. The twin Halloween Sentries banners are here: forming the threshold one must pass through on Samhain.

Secret Addendum (written originally in a secret alphabet)
Lastly, I will draw attention to one small fragment of the Das Kabinett Halloween video. This clip was taken last October at the Hill of Tara (Cnoc na Teamhrach) in Ireland, where the Stone of Destiny (Lia Fail), the seat of the mythic High Kings of Ireland still stands. In the near distance in the video clip is the Hill of Tlachtga, where Halloween began millennia before. It is the video’s only black and white segment.

–Bruce Walters