[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-152090-en":3,"doc-seo-152090-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":91},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":20,"is_downloadable":20,"audit_status":20,"page_count":21,"language":22,"language_code":23,"site_id":24,"html_lang":23,"table_of_contents":25,"faqs":26,"seo_title":27,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},152090,549768072016,"WPS_1786070896","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_155a257f0dc6eb9ab79c44ca47cae57d",2,"Literature","Yinka Shonibare MBE  -  Manifests the Ghost of Manhattan’s Oldest House","Review-style coverage of Yinka Shonibare MBE’s site-specific exhibition Colonial Arrangements at the Morris-Jumel Mansion, where the artist conjures Eliza Jumel’s “ghost” through headless mannequins and Dutch wax textiles staged inside period rooms. The text links multiple installations—spanning the 1776 George Washington chamber to the 1790 dining room and later spaces—to questions of authenticity, global cultural origins, and the blurring of historical fact with speculation. It situates the work within the mansion’s long, rumor-laden history and notes the exhibition’s seasonal run through August 31.","Meier, Allison,“Yinka Shonibare MBE Manifests the Ghost of Manhattan’s Oldest House,” Hyperallergic, May 6, 2015. Accessed online: [http://hyperallergic.com/](http://hyperallergic.com/)  \nYinka Shonibare MBE Manifests the Ghost of Manhattan’s Oldest House  \nby Allison Meier on May 6, 2015  \nYinka Shonibare MBE,“Boy Doing Headstand”(2009), fiberglass mannequin, Dutch wax printed cotton, mixed media, installed in the 1776 George Washington bedchamber and study at the Morris-Jumel Mansion. (all photos  \nby the author for Hyperallergic)  \nMorris-Jumel Mansion in Washington Heights has long been rumored a haunted house, with the ghost of its longest resident Eliza Jumel spotted creeping on its creaking floors. In Colonial Arrangements , a site-specific exhibition in partnership with the Historic House Trust, UK-born Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare MBE conjures Eliza’s specter with headless mannequins clothed in Dutch wax fabric lurking in the period rooms. Simultaneously, he engages with the history of Manhattan’s oldest house, which is celebrating its 250th anniversary up on its hill overlooking the Harlem River.  \nYinka Shonibare MBE,“Planets In My Head, Arts”(2011), fiberglass mannequin, Dutch wax printed cotton, fiberglass globe, violin, and leather, installed in the 1790 dining room  \nSome of Colonial Arrangements is from Shonibare’s Mother and Father Worked Hard So I Can Play series, which played in the period rooms of the Brooklyn Museum in  \n2009. The vibrant fabric in contrasting patterns sewn into 19th and 18th-century inspired attire animates works like the “Boy Doing Headstand”(2009) in the bedchamber and study used by George Washington in 1776, which gets a sort of Exorcist creepiness when viewing its decapitated body bending backwards from down the hall. Downstairs a later piece,“Planets In My Head, Arts”(2011), plays the violin with a black fiberglass globe for a head, its shadow falling from the 1790 dining room into the servant passageway, poised between the class boundary contained even in a single room. Shonibare has long used the Dutch wax fabric for its global origins and issues of authenticity, as it’s now associated with West Africa, but was appropriated from Indonesian batik and manufactured in Europe. Period rooms of historic houses have their own authenticity issues, their centuries-old scenes having an accuracy that is often mostly conjectured, making them a responsive setting for Shonibare’s work.  \nYinka Shonibare MBE,“Seated Girl”(2009), fiberglass mannequin, Dutch wax printed cotton, mixed media,  \ninstalled in the 1826-30 Eliza Jumel dressing room.  \nYinka Shonibare MBE,“The Ghost of Eliza Jumel (Sculpture)”(2015), fiberglass mannequin, Dutch wax printed cotton textile, and steel plate, installed in the 1826-30 Eliza Jumel bedchamber.  \nThe strongest piece was created specifically to mingle and manipulate the  \nmansion setting, with the “Ghost of Eliza Jumel” appearing periodically downstairs in a modified antique mirror inspired by the 1862 Pepper’s ghost illusion , and the full-size mannequin upstairs that skulks in Eliza’s 1826–30 bedchamber, reflected in another towering mirror. Eliza Jumel is an illusive figure. In some reports she was the daughter of a prostitute , while she fueled rumors George Washington was her father, and convinced the wealthy Stephen Jumel to marry her as she faked terminal illness and wished only to wed before her certain death. When Stephen Jumel died in 1832, after a fall in a carriage ride that has its own suspicions, the then-wealthiest woman in the country married a post-Alexander Hamilton killing Aaron Burr. They divorced in 1836,  \nand an increasingly eccentric Eliza remained at the Washington Heights mansion until her death in 1865 (her lengthy New York Timesobituary is an impressive mingling of fuzzy facts, including a possible dalliance with Benedict Arnold and witty days as part of the French court) . There’s some speculation that her later reclusive life inspi","cbCaifbDOHda8C9q","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaifbDOHda8C9q","pdf",1520984,1,7,"English","en",105,"# Overview\n## Eliza Jumel and the haunted-house narrative\n## The exhibition’s key installations\n## Materials, authenticity, and historical framing\n## Exhibition details and closing notes","[{\"question\":\"What exhibition does Allison Meier discuss in the article?\",\"answer\":\"The article focuses on Yinka Shonibare MBE’s site-specific exhibition Colonial Arrangements at the Morris-Jumel Mansion.\"},{\"question\":\"How does Shonibare create Eliza Jumel’s “ghost” in the installation?\",\"answer\":\"He uses headless mannequins and mirrors that produce periodic appearances within the mansion’s period rooms, visually staging Eliza’s specter.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the article emphasize Dutch wax fabric in relation to authenticity?\",\"answer\":\"It explains that the fabric’s origins and cultural associations are tied to West Africa while being appropriated from Indonesian batik and manufactured in Europe, echoing authenticity tensions also found in historic rooms.\"}]","Yinka Shonibare MBE  -  Manifests the Ghost of Manhattan’s Oldest House | PDF",1787855165,11,{"code":4,"msg":31,"data":32},"ok",{"site_id":24,"language":23,"slug":33,"title":13,"keywords":34,"description":14,"schema_data":35,"social_meta":86,"head_meta":88,"extra_data":90,"updated_unix":28},"yinka-shonibare-mbe-manifests-the-ghost-of-manhattans-oldest-house","",{"@graph":36,"@context":85},[37,53,68],{"@type":38,"itemListElement":39},"BreadcrumbList",[40,44,47,50],{"item":41,"name":42,"@type":43,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":45,"name":46,"@type":43,"position":11},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",{"item":48,"name":12,"@type":43,"position":49},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/literature/",3,{"item":51,"name":13,"@type":43,"position":52},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/yinka-shonibare-mbe-manifests-the-ghost-of-manhattans-oldest-house/152090/",4,{"url":51,"name":13,"@type":54,"author":55,"headline":13,"publisher":57,"fileFormat":60,"inLanguage":23,"description":14,"dateModified":61,"datePublished":62,"encodingFormat":60,"isAccessibleForFree":63,"interactionStatistic":64},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":56},"Person",{"url":41,"name":58,"@type":59},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-09-04","2026-08-27",true,{"@type":65,"interactionType":66,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":67},"ViewAction",{"@type":69,"mainEntity":70},"FAQPage",[71,77,81],{"name":72,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":74},"What exhibition does Allison Meier discuss in the article?","Question",{"text":75,"@type":76},"The article focuses on Yinka Shonibare MBE’s site-specific exhibition Colonial Arrangements at the Morris-Jumel Mansion.","Answer",{"name":78,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":79},"How does Shonibare create Eliza Jumel’s “ghost” in the installation?",{"text":80,"@type":76},"He uses headless mannequins and mirrors that produce periodic appearances within the mansion’s period rooms, visually staging Eliza’s specter.",{"name":82,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":83},"Why does the article emphasize Dutch wax fabric in relation to authenticity?",{"text":84,"@type":76},"It explains that the fabric’s origins and cultural associations are tied to West Africa while being appropriated from Indonesian batik and manufactured in Europe, echoing authenticity tensions also found in historic rooms.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":51,"og:type":87,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":58,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":89,"canonical":51},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":24},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":92},[93,97,100,104,109,114,118,123,128,131,135],{"id":20,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":94,"show_sort_weight":95,"slug":96},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},80,"literature",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":101,"show_sort_weight":102,"slug":103},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":105,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":106,"show_sort_weight":107,"slug":108},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":110,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":111,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":21,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":115,"show_sort_weight":116,"slug":117},"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":119,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":121,"slug":122},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":124,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":125,"show_sort_weight":126,"slug":127},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":126,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":129,"show_sort_weight":126,"slug":130},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":132,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":133,"show_sort_weight":132,"slug":134},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":136,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":137,"show_sort_weight":105,"slug":138},19,"General","general"]