The Hermetic Seal (small)

The Hermetic Seal (small)

Ben Cauchi’s photograph The Hermetic Seal depicts a collection of matches contained within a bell jar. Wisps of smoke undulate within the glass. Reflected in the jar’s surface are large windowpanes, a few framed works hanging on a wall, and a long dark field where one might expect to see the photographer snapping his image. The smoke motif invites the viewer to contemplate what lies in the consuming darkness of the other side.

A 'hermetic seal' refers to an airtight object which isolates what’s inside it from the outside world. The term stems from the alchemical texts about the legendary figure Hermes Trismegistus (a cultural evolution of the Greek God, Hermes). In Greek mythology, Hermes was a psychopomp—free to move between the mortal and divine worlds, and a guide to souls in the afterlife. The term gradually evolved to denote that which is sealed or secret. Does Cauchi seal off only the snuffed flames of matches or something less tangible?

Working predominantly with wet collodion, Cauchi employed a technique used by photography’s pioneers in the 1830s. As a visual vernacular, this produces sepia-tones inflected by dust particles and dark vignettes that frame the image's subject. This photograph evokes mid-nineteenth century studio practice to which illusion and the suspension of disbelief were integral. Gesturing to the medium’s historical entanglement with the Enlightenment emphasis on visual perception, and Spiritualist photography’s visual trickery, Cauchi stages apparitions and thresholds that interrogate our assumption that things are as they appear.

— Maya Love, 2022