JOY RAY
The Ghost Kingdom
Cerritos College Art Gallery
January 26 - February 7, 2026
In 1979, psychologist Betty Jean Lifton coined the term “Ghost Kingdom” to describe the speculative inner worlds of adopted people, formed in response to institutional secrecy around their origins. In The Ghost Kingdom, Joy Ray—herself adopted—materializes this condition as a haunted archive. Working with personal archival material, textiles, found artifacts, and video, Ray frames adoption as a lived form of hauntology, continually unsettled by missing records and unknowable pasts.
Sculptural forms depicting Ray’s own adoption records sway in front of black canvases made from thrift-store denim, marked by the residual traces of unknown bodies. A vintage crib and lockbox suggest a missing child and a sealed origin, while a video (visible through strategic peepholes) links adoption to dark matter, archival secrets, and ghosts. Staged in a large exterior vitrine, the exhibition can be viewed at any time.
This exhibition is part of WINDOW DRESSING, an annual cycle of short-term installations presented in the exterior vitrine of the Cerritos College Art Gallery. WINDOW DRESSING is part of the Brand Library & Art Center’s HyperSoCal initiative. The Ghost Kingdom is supported, in part, by a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant.
Press Release (PDF)
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