When Jean Paul coined the term ‘Doppelgänger’ in his 1796 novel Siebenkäs, he gave new name to the spirit doubles that have populated folklore and literature for thousands of years. From the ancient Egyptians ‘ka’ to the ‘fetch’ of 18th and 19th Century Celtic literature, encountering your own mysterious look-alike was often taken as bad omen - a frightening harbinger of death or disease.

Be it a ghostly apparition, a shadow-self, or alter-ego, artists have long been fascinated with the doppelgänger. The doppelgänger evokes the uncanny, and estranges us from ourselves. In Doppelgänger, Jack Stephens and Ronan Apcar present German Lieder by Schubert, Strauss, and Wolf that explores our many selves: the reflection in the mirror you do not recognise, who we become when we are in love, or when we stand face to face with death. Identities curated, distorted, or ever changing - these are all doppelgängers of sorts.

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