Rebecca Jane Arthur
Gossips & Ghosts
Gossips & Ghosts is the first chapter of an audiovisual research project that brings together women in a collective reading circle and celebrates citation as feminist memory. Filmed on 16mm, the work weaves together voices, fragmented readings, and gestures. It unfolds through voicing, citing, listening, and gathering – acts that resist isolation and build a collective feminist memory.
Drawing on the writings of Silvia Federici, the project revisits how “gossip” – once meaning close friend or companion – was transformed into a term of ridicule, historically contributing to the erosion of female solidarity. In response, Arthur gathers voices reading feminist theory on silence, storytelling, and resistance, foregrounding the sharing of knowledge as a form of collective power and reclaiming “gossip” as a form of feminist kinship.
Gossips & Ghosts features Kedist Coppejans, Kim Eldarova, Amber Erbezci, Muireann Hillman Allen, Lente Ijsendijk, Hana Kiani, Marie Logie, Sofia Roelants, Eva De Vilder, and Eowyn Vlaeminck. This ongoing research project is developed within Arthur’s artistic doctoral research at KASK & Conservatorium, produced by elephy with the support of the Flemish Community Commission (VGC), and in dialogue with curator Sonia D’Alto.