Garance Früh

When Tables Turn is a research project that takes as its starting point the emergence of the American Spiritualist movement in the nineteenth century and its role in the history of feminist struggles. In a society where women were largely excluded from political, religious, and intellectual spheres, Spiritualism provided a paradoxical space for public expression. Regarded as mere intermediaries between the world of the living and the spirit world, some female mediums nevertheless found in this position a means of gaining visibility, economic independence, and authority. By embodying the voices of recognized male figures—scientists, philosophers, and political leaders—they were able to occupy spaces from which they were ordinarily excluded.

My project approaches Spiritualism not as a religious phenomenon, but as a social, embodied, and performative apparatus. I will focus particularly on the ways in which séances altered the uses of the body: postures, gestures, movements, occupation of space, and transformations of identity. I seek to explore how trance states could open up alternative forms of presence and expression at a time when women’s behavior was subject to strict social norms.

This research will draw on archival work, the consultation of historical documents, and the study of images and accounts of séances, as well as visits to sites connected to Spiritualism and the history of free thought in the United States.

The residency will allow me to assemble a body of materials—including notes, images, films, documents, and sculptural experiments—that will serve as the basis for a future series of sculptures exploring questions of voice, authority, mediation, and embodiment.

The United States occupy a central place in the history of modern Spiritualism. It was in the northeastern United States that the movement developed from the mid-nineteenth century onward, before becoming a major social phenomenon closely connected to debates around women’s rights, social reform, free thought, and new forms of public participation.

Boston represents a particularly relevant starting point for this research. The city has a rich intellectual and political history, shaped by abolitionist movements, feminist activism, and religious experimentation that accompanied the emergence of Spiritualism. It also provides privileged access to collections, archives, and institutions that could shed light on the historical and cultural dimensions of my project.

I would like to meet with art historians, specialists in Spiritualism, curators, artists, and archivists whose work explores the relationships between the body, performance, belief, and power. These exchanges will allow me to deepen my understanding of the contexts in which mediumistic practices emerged and evolved.

I would also like to visit sites connected to the history of Spiritualism, free thought, and nineteenth-century reform movements, as well as collections dedicated to spirit photography and alternative forms of knowledge production.

Beyond their historical significance, this research resonates with my current artistic concerns. It will allow me to examine how certain voices manage to be heard and legitimized, or conversely marginalized, and to explore the material and embodied forms through which these mechanisms take shape.