Spirits Talks

Spirit Talks is a multi-channel installation built from a series of short black-and-white 16mm films. The work grows out of extensive research into the figures of nineteenth-century mediums, often marginalised women who, through mediumistic practice, found a form of economic and symbolic self-determination.
At the end of the nineteenth century, alongside the spread of photography, a great interest in spiritualism developed. At the time, many mediums attracted the attention of the positivist scientific community, which wanted to use photography as a way to prove or disprove magical evocations. Scientists focused on invisible matter – electricity, the unconscious or spirits – in an attempt to classify and name what exists. Spirit Talks reclaims the techniques of early analogue special effects, such as double exposure and optical découpage, to produce spectral presences on screen and to acknowledge the historical friction between the positivist scientific community and magical thought. The sound component, developed in collaboration with a sound artist and performers, explores the “improper” use of the voice, evoking a dimension in which what has been silenced can be heard again.