Spiritualist churches, referred to as Lyceums, saw themselves as places of learning. Unlike traditional religion, the congregation was encouraged to step out from under the yolk of priests and learn how to commune directly with mystical forces. Those who had little or no access to universities – such as working-class people and women – could bypass the institutions that excluded them by directly conversing with canonical thinkers. Popular among the illustrious dead willing to lend a hand with teaching were the political radical Thomas Paine and the Swedish philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg. The Modern Spiritualist Movement became an alternative educational institution, created by and for marginalised people.

Behind the platform is a backdrop based on nineteenth-century paintings by Thomas Bierstadt, representing the journey to the American West, which bears a striking resemblance to the Spiritualist afterlife known as The Summerland. In the guilty settler colonial imaginations of early mediums this was a place filled with benevolent Native Americans, willing to help an individual through the seven spheres to a more comfortable material and social position.

The installation faithfully reconstructs the ad hoc combination of 1970s kitsch interiors and grand Victoriana that can be found in Spiritualist Lyceums. By playing with different tones of voice in the information panels, I trouble the authority of the museum display format, provoking the viewer to question the story that is being told.

The Medium and Daybreak was originally exhibited in the solo exhibition of the same name at Castlefield Gallery, Manchester (2005), and again in the group exhibition ‘Mystic Truths’ at Auckland Art Gallery (2007).