Artist’s ‘seance’ prompts yawns instead of screams

A GALLERY room at twilight filled with eerie wall hangings and 7ft iron gates could set the perfect scene for holding hands and calling on spirits.

But Martin Eder, a German artist, is being criticised for his poor attempt at holding a “spiritualistic seance” at Vauxhall’s Beaconsfield Gallery as part of the opening of his new exhibition.

Apparently comprising of mindfulness experiments and magic tricks, the evening left the group of participants more confused than spooked.

One visitor said: “I’d expected a little more atmosphere.”

He added: “[A jar] was passed around the circle so that everyone could spit into it and combine our essences, but spitting is unpleasant, so only half of the participants did.”

It ended abruptly when one woman called out Eder’s behaviour while he tried to reveal what everyone had written on secret slips of paper. The woman claims she saw a man standing behind her when she was writing.

When she insisted that Eder revealed what extra words she wrote on the slip, he could not.