What makes this theme so trendy? Why all of the sudden are ghosts, gouls and the underworld all the rage? Has the art world entered a new phase that proclaims itself to be new and astonishing, simply because it does not fall within the months that we expect work of this nature decorating entrance halls?

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has put together several noteworthy exhibitions, including Van Gogh’s early drawings, (see article: Van Gogh at the Met in the Cityzen archives) and “Photography and the Occult”. The latter is a fascinating display of albumen and silver gelatin prints depicting ghosts, specters, fairies, and other aspects of the occult, much to the whimsy and disbelief of the people wandering around the exhibition.

What I find amusing about these types of pieces is knowing that they once left onlookers awestruck and in disbelief, yet it no longer seems like something out of the ordinary to us. Especially if you are a jaded New Yorkers, you’ve seen it all. Mohawks, tattoos, piercings, homeless people, pushy vendors, and people dancing in banana suits handing out flyers. We get so desensitized, that a picture of a man with a sheet over his body no longer affects us the way it would have people in the late 1800s.

Flowers on Madison Avenue has a history of hosting controversial shows. In their current exhibition Steve Pyke has used arcane and terrifying looking surgical implements in an exhibition called “Post Partum/Post Mortem.” The images themselves are very simple and straight forward. The tools are represented deadpan in the center of each tan tinged photograph. They are not gruesome images, but contain stomach-turning undertones as the onlooker carefully examines the curled edges of the bowel scissors, and the blade of the rib shears. They are well composed, but absolutely shocking.

Pyke has an interesting perspective on the process of entering and exiting this world, and how similar these processes are to one another. Flowers' previous exhibitions include “Stations of the Cross” and “Christos Aneste”, paintings by Scottish artist Peter Howson. These series place emphasis on religious themes focusing on sorrow, the human spirit and characters of the underworld.

On par with the Metropolitan Museum’s “Occult” is Cyril Permutt’s eery portrait series from the 1860’s. “Photographing the Invisible” at Keith DeLelis is perhaps some of the most successful spirit photograph collections I’ve seen. What would be old fashioned sepia portraits are delicate pictures of men and women being embraced by translucent, almost invisible forms. Perhaps I find these the most impressive because these rounded corner albumin photographs sprung from a historical and scientific perspective.

With all this in mind, I go back to my original question: Why is this theme so popular? Artist are all about pushing boundaries. I’ve seen some installations that have left me sick to my stomach with how “experimental” and “edgy” they can be. Is this a safe way museum curators have found to push the envelope? When thinking of pulling audiences to such establishments, a show on Van Gogh drawings are one thing, pictures of specters quite another.