Séance

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This wall sculpture depicts three clothed, headless bodies holding hands around a table draped with a blue tablecloth. In the center is a flickering electric candle and a photograph. The whole scene is meant to evoke a séance, literally the French word for “session” but more specifically referring to a gathering of people who—often with a spiritual medium or guide—attempt to communicate with a specific deceased person, or with the spirit realm more generally. The figures do not have heads, with the top part of a hangar where the head should be and the “bodies” very loosely draped with clothing. The clothing itself is outdated and grandmotherly. The unrealistic hands are slightly oversized, discolored, and obviously constructed out of papier-mache. Their appearance evokes the general form of human beings, while being off-putting and lacking the necessary details of a person. This calls into question whether the bodies are meant to represent living or dead people, and which side of the séance we as the viewers are a part of—are we looking at a scene in the realm of the living or the realm of the dead? The framed photograph within the sculpture is from an ongoing series by Fine titled “Flat Granny and me.” Fine took this image during a residency in Dresden, Germany. In this photograph, a performer wears Flat Granny (a life-sized photo-sculptural costume of the artist’s deceased grandmother made from the images taken while she was alive). The photograph is a black and white archival pigment print (5"x7") in a vintage metal frame. Placed over it to give it a dimensional effect are pink ribbons that the artist has hand-colored with watercolor. Included in the purchase price are multiple prints of this same photograph that will be changed on a yearly basis, to ensure the sculpture can stay on display for a longer period. The entire scene of three human-ish figures seated around a table is a dimensional wall sculpture, with the table protruding outward but at an angle to give an exaggerated appearance of depth. The tablecloth is blue, which the artist has painted and specifically draped to give the appearance of waves in an ocean. Fine has provided the following artist’s statement for “As in a Mirror, Dimly,” the series that Séance is a part of, which was exhibited at Ortega y Gasset Projects in New York City in March 2025. This series, “As in a Mirror, Dimly,” draws inspiration from the psychomanteum—a device used for spirit communication—from the ectoplasm photography of mediums generations ago, and from Victorian-era spiritualism. The works in this series merge photography with ritual, memory with material, in a search for connection beyond the veil. Following the death of my sister, Beth, my practice turned inward, becoming a form of searching—each photograph, each object an extension of my relationship with her, a talisman against loss. Photography, both artistically and spiritually, is a medium in this body of work, it is a sacred means of reaching toward what is gone. The objects within “As in a Mirror, Dimly”—icons of luck, ritual, and protection—form an armor for navigating grief, fashion a tether line into the hereafter, and grasp with determination for presence in the face of absence.