Seance is an exhibition that reexamines the practice of painting room interiors.  This series of small-scale works was inspired by the painstakingly detailed and highly finished watercolours of the 18th and 19th centuries depicting both domestic and state architecture.  These paintings, which are now found in museums and private collections, were considered a minor art form executed either by professionals employed to immortalise costly schemes of lavish décor, or anonymously by women of the period recording the humbler abodes in which they themselves lived.

As an artist working in the 21st century Gerard Gauci is interested in exploring this genre from a new perspective. On a recent visit to the Palace of Versailles he was struck by how the rooms on exhibit had been faithfully restored yet how their sense of being occupied was largely absent. After all, Versailles was the birthplace of formality and elegance as we know it, as well as a breeding ground for intrigue, corruption and ultimately for revolution itself. Could the passage of time and the removal of personal effects completely eradicate the spirit of previous inhabitants or did some barely tangible essence of their lives and personalities remain? This question is at the heart of Gauci’s approach.
   
While maintaining the miniature scale of earlier models, Gauci replaces their tight control with a fluid and atmospheric treatment.  Tinted acrylic glazes and stains suggest both the passage of time and the haunted nature of these "preserved" environments. Splashes and streaks of paint resembling the ectoplasm seen in early spiritualist photographs interrupt their airless calm and hint not only at the emotional residue left by former residents, but at the unseen currents and signals that in their own spectral way inhabit our lives today.