'The Image of The Ghost'

Ghosting is understood to have a double meaning – first, as the supernatural, an apparition of the dead. The last ten years hasn’t seen a proliferation of ghosts on our screens as it has with other undead figures. Ghosts are the traumatized, unable to move on, stuck in the past and present. A chimera of dashed hopes, an unattainable future, with nowhere to go.

The second understanding of ghosting is used within contemporary parlance and concerns the practice of ending a relationship, through the screening of calls and messages and withdrawing overall contact with someone, often without the person being made aware of the reasoning behind the action. This is a common and generally accepted experience of dating apps and so forth with a sliding scale of the acceptability of ghosting. (Chatted online a bit = fine to ghost. Entered into a sexual relationship under the pretext of dating as opposed to a one-night stand = the ghosted is justified in feeling put out by this.)

We are all ghosts! – simultaneously the ghosted and the ghoster.