The Larva Society for Psychical Research was established in 2012 to explore Gothic imagery and language,[1] their social and spiritualist aspects, and their Pop-like qualities. By means of pseudo-scientific research, the society exposes romantic Gothic values concealed in works The Larva Society for Psychical Research was established in 2012 to explore Gothic values concealed in works of art: emotion, kitsch, thegrotesque body, lack of control, horror, love, torment, eternal life, specters, popular science, science fiction, and alchemy.
Gothicism belongs to a spectrum of decadent, escapist subcultures that have emerged throughout modern history, thriving against the backdrop of global socio-political crises and overwhelming scientific breakthroughs. When fear of the unknown and the inexplicable rises, the turn to spiritualism and the occult—through rituals which connect one to the unknown and the spirit world—summons the strange and foreign, even if these cannot be rationally contained.
The Larva Society for Psychical Research was named after Larva,[2] a young artist engaging in experimental cinema and installation. The Society's studies delve into local aspects of Gothicism vis-à- vis its global facets, juxtaposing images drawn directly from Gothic paraphernalia to Jewish and myths and culture. The interest in the Gothic is a fascination with the dark side of Western culture.
Gothicism is the ghost of minorities, which comes back to haunt the establishment, serving as a black mirror which reflects innate evil and heartlessness. It introduces the gaze of the other, indicating the disintegration of the absolute and constant into the breached and fluid, subverting everything perceived as secure or stable. On the occasion of the World Goth Day on May 22,[3] the Larva Society for Psychical Research will relocate temporarily to the Jerusalem Artists House—a historically significant building profoundly linked to the beginnings of Israeli art. As in the dybbuk, the Artists House will become a temporary body—a site still haunted by the ghosts of the past. The Larva Society will operate on site for two and a half months, striving to explore the potential of the work of art as a medium for spiritualist activity. It will bring works by artists both living and dead together, transforming them into transmitters—objects which enable communication between matter (the work of art) and anti-matter (the spiritual world).
[1] Gothicism is a rich subculture which spans literature, theater, poetry, music, cinema, and fashion. It combines the rational and the emotional, the grotesqueand the romantic sublime, touching upon the dark, mysterious, supernatural, andthe future with all its technological advances.
[2]Larva (Latin: ghost, disembodied spirit, Satan, intimidating mask, skeleton) isan immature phase in the life cycle of insects and amphibians, the phase betweenfetus and adult, before sexual maturity, which differs (in appearance) from the insect's full-blown form.
[3]This date was set in England in 2009. Accounting Day is also celebrated on May 22.