Book Review: Haunted Bauhaus: Occult Spirituality, Gender Fluidity, Queer Identities, and Radical Politics by Elizabeth Otto

Abstract

Book Review| September 01 2020 Book Review: Haunted Bauhaus: Occult Spirituality, Gender Fluidity, Queer Identities, and Radical Politics by Elizabeth Otto Elizabeth Otto, Haunted Bauhaus: Occult Spirituality, Gender Fluidity, Queer Identities, and Radical Politics, (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2019). Recto, 2019. 280 pp./$34.95 (hb). Francesca Ferrari Francesca Ferrari Francesca Ferrari is a PhD candidate at New York University's Institute of Fine Arts. Her research focuses on the connections between the body and geometric abstraction in avant-garde art from the 1920s. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Afterimage (2020) 47 (3): 112–116. https://doi.org/10.1525/aft.2020.473010 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Francesca Ferrari; Book Review: Haunted Bauhaus: Occult Spirituality, Gender Fluidity, Queer Identities, and Radical Politics by Elizabeth Otto. Afterimage 1 September 2020; 47 (3): 112–116. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/aft.2020.473010 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentAfterimage Search In Hans Richter's 1928 experimental film Vormittagsspuk [Morning Spook, aka Ghosts Before Breakfast], four bowler hats appear to come to life. Carried by invisible forces, the hats float in the air in defiance of gravity. A number of confused bystanders unsuccessfully attempt to identify and grasp the hats' disembodied carriers. Other ghostly presences haunt the film: invisible hands cock guns, windows spontaneously burst open, water hoses unfurl themselves, and coffee magically flows into cups. Mirroring Richter's orchestration of dazzling visual rhythms through negative images, reverse motion, and trick shots, the film's eerie subjects resist any linear narratives. Because the ghosts are invisible, their actions seem irrational and ultimately remain obscure, bewildering viewers. Like Richter, Elizabeth Otto draws upon quasi-invisible actors and uncharted phenomena to complicate the history of the Bauhaus—with which Richter was unaffiliated but with whose members he frequently collaborated. In Haunted Bauhaus: Occult Spirituality, Gender Fluidity, Queer Identities,... You do not currently have access to this content.