Details - The Blue Room

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The Blue Room

Saturday 06 February - Sunday 18 April 10:00am - 4:30pm

The Blue Room was a house in Dunedin where Spiritualists Clive Chapman and his niece Pearl Judd conducted séances in the 1920s. The Blue Room then moved to Masterton in the 1930s where they found a receptive audience. Spiritualists believe that the spirit of a person exists beyond their body and that the living can communicate with the dead.

This exhibition presents work by 13 artists who were invited to respond to the idea of the ʻBlue Roomʼ and the psychic activity that took place there. Through their individual reflections, the artists also offer a wider view on perceptions of the paranormal in the contemporary world. Some of the artists have approached the topic as believers and some as sceptics.

Today there is a proliferation of television programmes featuring psychics, ʻAsk a Psychicʼ magazine columns, and growing communities of spell sellers and psychic mediums online and performing on stages around the globe. Does all this suggest an increasing belief in psychic phenomena? Could it be that in a time of global economic crisis and all manner of other potential crises, itʼs comforting to believe that there is more to this world of ours than the physical and rational?