The Haunted House Egoyan Built: Archiving the Ghosted Body and Imagination in the Films of Atom Egoyan and the Art of Janet Cardiff

Abstract

In Janet Cardiff’s contemporary art installation The Paradise Institute, viewers are quietly ushered up a staircase and into a mini movie theatre constructed in hyper-perspective. Stewards hand out headphones and request all mobile phones be turned off. Once inside, viewers sit in the wings, above curved rows of empty seats in the lower regions of the auditorium. The film starts and a series of neo-noir images, in languishing close-up, are projected on the screen, while extra sound effects are transmitted via headphones. It is as if the ghosts of previous audiences have left a residual presence in the empty space — we hear a couple arguing, whispers, shifting in seats, someone calls out: ‘Did you turn the stove off before we left?’ Then, in another direction: ‘Why don’t you try this popcorn?’ A mobile phone bleeps and is answered by a young female voice speaking in Spanish. Someone coughs.