Phantasmaphile

Jen DeNike and Damien Echols' "777" Exhibition

Damien Echols

Some of you may know Damien Echols as one of the West Memphis Three, a group of teenagers wrongfully accused of murder in the early 90s. Echols himself had been on death row, and all three of them were in prison for 18 years and 78 days before being exonerated and freed. Since his release, Echols has been exhibiting his impeccably crafted occult artwork, the making of which, he stated, "...is the same as a practicing Catholic would use a rosary, or a Muslim would use a prayer rug. Things that are set apart from daily life ... sacred objects." It's work that is deeply meditative both in its creation and in its viewing.

If you're lucky enough to be near NYC, then you won't want to miss "777," his two-person show with Jen DeNike opening this weekend at Participant, Inc.  The exhibition explores the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, and incorporates his drawings and DeNike's videos in seven installations that are mapped throughout the space to manifest seven of the ten sephirot. Full details:

Jen DeNike and Damien Echols, 777
September 10 – October 15, 2017
Opening Reception, Sunday, September 10, 7-9pm

“I believe in magick, I believe in you”
–Jen DeNike

“Magicians have catalogued and explored ten different levels of what is known as
reality, and then produced a map of this terrain. That map now goes by the name of
the Tree of Life. Magicians also studied and mapped out the path through these
levels of reality that divine energy takes as it manifests on the physical plane,
and that path has been configured to have the numerological value of 777.”
–Damien Echols

PARTICIPANT INC is pleased to present 777, a two person exhibition by New York-based artists Jen DeNike and Damien Echols. Seven discreet site-specific installations evolved and are mapped according to the Tree of Life drawing by Echols, including individual artworks by each artist as well as collaborative,
interactive, and time-based work. Seven vinyl vector drawings of red sigils derived from this drawing float on the walls, connecting the passage through the Tree of Life realms of Kether, Binah, Chochma, Geburah, Chesed, Hod, and Netzach. Central to the exhibition is a large-scale handmade tent, which the artists will inhabit for one-on-one encounters with the tarot. As well, a collection of collaged books from the their library will be available for study inside. A series by DeNike of silent video works form two pillars, a gateway of initiation outside the tent, depicting her and Echols in meditative states. A
third single-channel video features Participant Director Lia Gangitano walking in and out of frame repeatedly in a ritual act of cyclic motion – she becomes the Chariot Card in the tarot, moving not in a direct line but rather a circular motion in time.

Sounds truly transcendent.

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Jenna Gribbon

Jenna Gribbon

It's difficult to know where to start when discussing Jenna Gribbon, as she stands at the shimmering point of several convergences in my life. Many of you may be familiar with the textile images she's created for one of my favorite designers, Samantha Pleet. She is also one half of the wife and husband art duo who ran The Oracle Club, a surrealist wonderland / shared working space I was fortunate to be a member of before it tragically closed earlier this year. I mourn it daily, especially now that I'm in the throws of writing a book and have found that every other work space near me has a woefully astringent, IKEA-tech aesthetic. I long for its bookshelves, its green velvet chairs, its black and white harlequin floors, its giant plants.

Mostly, I long for Gribbon's paintings, which graced its walls in all of their creamy, dreamy glory. Each piece felt like a fragment from a feminist banquet, lavishly viewed through the female gaze. Her newest work celebrates friendship, motherhood, and woman as her own muse. I love the way she mixes styles and colors, throwing back to earlier art movements, while adding her own modern magic. Looking forward to whatever she makes next.

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Eclipse News

I hope this note finds you feeling hopeful. Darkness can be unsettling, but it's so often a source of wisdom and vast potential. Let's make sure this American Eclipse kicks off a new chapter of change, courage, and radical curiosity.

How can we contribute to building a world that is equitable and just? How can we use the power of our imaginations to more fully engage and transform? How can we learn more about ourselves and each other, and use our collective power to create more love, more art, and more beauty? (Here's a good place to start). These are the questions I'm mulling over. I hope you'll join me.

On that note, there's lots of news to share with you, so I'll jump right in:

THIRD TIME'S A CHARM

The third Occult Humanities Conference at NYU will be taking place on October 13-15, 2017. It is once again co-organized by Jesse Bransford and myself, and this year is shaping up to be the most magical yet. Full details are here, with even more to come. Tickets for the weekend are available here, so do be sure to get yours soon, as they will sell fast.

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APPEARANCES & APPARITIONS

On Friday, September 1 at 7pm, I’ll be participating in the “Witch as Muse” panel discussion at the Seligmann Center in Sugarloaf, NY, alongside Sarah Potter, Kristen Sollée, and Cody Rounds. This is in conjunction with the “Season of the Witch” exhibition up now, which will be on view that evening. More info here.

On Thursday, October 5th at 6pm (New Zealand time), I’ll be participating remotely in “Night of the Witch” at City Gallery Wellington in honor of their “Occulture: The Dark Arts” exhibition. I’m going to be doing an illustrated reading of “What Is A Witch” and then a conversation and Q&A about art and witchcraft. More info here.

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SPELLCASTS FOR PODCASTS

I was honored to be a featured guest on the fabulist, feminist Stories of Strange Woman podcast. I had so much fun with this conversation, and it is quite extensive thanks to the great questions from twin hosts Tracy Hurley Martin and Tonya Hurley. Listen to the episode here.

And I’m grateful to The Wytch Files for doing an entire episode on “What Is A Witch,” complete with a stellar review and some annotations and other additional research. Listen to it here.

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BOOK, BOOK, AND CANDLE

A reminder that I wrote the forward to “Literary Witches” by Taisia Kitaiskaia with illustrations by Katy Horan. It’s out on October 10th, but you can pre-order this gorgeous book here.

And I’m thrilled to be featured in Kristen Sollée’s “Witches, Sluts, Feminists: Conjuring the Sex Positive,” available now.

(OK, no actual candle news to speak of, but do be sure to check out my friends Mithras Candle online or in person at the Occult Humanities Conference if you’re in need of further illumination!)

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SHE’S SUCH A SHAMELESS WITCH

Lastly, a reminder that “What Is A Witch,” by me and Tin Can Forest is available for purchase here, and in many fine shops across the globe.

And my WitchEmoji sticker app for iPhone messaging is available here to charm your mobile coven.

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Thank you for your continued support of my wyrd work. It truly means the world.

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"Occulture: The Dark Arts" exhibition in New Zealand!

Mikala Dwyer "Spell for a Corner" 2015

The "Occulture: The Dark Arts" exhibition just opened at New Zealand's City Gallery Wellington, and it looks to be a bewitching one. Incorporating magically-inclined artists past and present, it includes work from such legends as Rosaleen Norton, Aleister Crowley, and Kenneth Anger. A rare and unmissable gathering in general, but especially for you dwellers down under.

I'm also pleased to be participating remotely in their "Night of Witches" evening on of October 5th, part of a series of spectacular-sounding events coinciding with the show.

Here are the full details. Looking very much forward to taking part in this!

Occulture: The Dark Arts
August 12 - November 19, 2017

All art is Magick.

—Aleister Crowley

Art and the occult have always been intertwined. They draw powers, rituals and symbols from each other in their efforts to re-enchant the world and redefine human experience. 

Throughout history, occult practices have been shunned, banned, and driven underground. Yet, certain moments have been open to their alternative possibilities. According to academic Christopher Partridge we are witnessing the emergence of a shared ‘Occulture’. Esoteric and occult ideas have permeated wider consciousness and reshaped the spirit of our age.   

This show explores contemporary art’s role in the process of occultation (a term first used by Andre Breton in his 1930 Surrealist Manifesto). It brings together New Zealand and international artists who push the symbolic, formal and material languages of esoteric or occult traditions into new forms. Australian artist Mikala Dwyer casts a spell in the form of a wall painting. Dane Mitchell’s silk banners are printed with hand gestures that activate magical thinking and open up possibilities for astral perception. The charcoal Liquidation Maps of Taiwanese artist Yin-Ju Chen link atrocities in Asia to specific astrological permutations. Fiona Pardington presents an altar in both photographic and sculptural form, while Kenneth Anger’s Lucifer Rising screens in the auditorium. These artists all invoke magical thinking and ritual to charge the gallery space with invisible energies and forces. 

These and other contemporary artists—working across drawing, painting, sculpture, book making, film, sound, printmaking, photography —are brought into conversation with key historical figures of the occult tradition. At the heart of the exhibition is a suite of ‘nightmare paintings’ by English occultist, ceremonial magician and poet Aleister Crowley. His paintings were made in Sicily in the early 1920s, as he was establishing his Abbey of Thelema. They were part of his attempt to integrate art into his magical theory. Crowley’s connected belief in the book as a ‘talismanic object’ was the spur for FULGUR to start publishing contemporary esoteric books—a selection of which are included in the exhibition. The trance-induced work of Crowley’s Antipodean devotee Rosaleen Norton also features prominently. Born ‘during a thunderstorm’ in Dunedin in 1917, she moved to Sydney, where she became known as ‘the Witch of Kings Cross’ and was persecuted for her transgressive behaviour and for her mystical art works summoning pagan entities. This is the first time either Crowley or Norton have been exhibited in New Zealand.

The show’s public programme brings in other practitioners of occulture from music, performance and film.

Artists: Kenneth Anger (US), Leo Bensemann (NZ), Yin-Ju Chen (TAIWAN), Eleanor Cooper (NZ), Aleister Crowley (UK), Simon Cuming (NZ), Mikala Dwyer (AUS), FULGUR (UK), Henry Fuseli (SUI), Jason Greig (NZ), Dane Mitchell (NZ), Rosaleen Norton (NZ/AUS), Tony Oursler (US), Fiona Pardington (NZ), Lorene Taurerewa (NZ), Thomson & Craighead (UK), Brendon Wilkinson (NZ).

 

"Night of Witches"

• Date: 5 October 2017
• Time: Thursday, 5-10pm
• Cost: Entry by donation

Art, music, film, talks, beer, wine, food, magick. We celebrate the 100-year anniversary of Rosaleen Norton’s birth with a night of witches. Cynthia Crosse (Ordo Templi Orientis) discusses Norton, and Pam Grossman, teacher of magic, Skypes in from New York. Plus performances from Hex and Mermaidens.

Belkis Ayón exhibition

Belkis Ayón, “La familia (The Family),” 1991

Belkis Ayón was a Cuban artist who was fascinated by the secret Afro-Cuban fraternal society Abakuá. She used the iconography of its origin story as the principle subject matter for her multitextured grayscale colograph prints, while infusing each picture with her own feminist and subversive twist. She died in 1999 at the all-too young age of thirty-two, though she had already begun to make her mark on the art world. Her immense talent and provocative imagery mixed with her tragic end have made her the stuff of legend.

Still, most of her work hasn't been exhibited together in the US until this year, via an exhibition entitled NKAME, which is "a word meaning praise and salutation in the Abakuá language," according to the show statement of curator Cristina Vives. Thrilled that it has made its way to NYC, up now at El Museo Del Barrio through November 5th. Can't wait to see these pieces in person and bask in their shadow.

(Thank you to Jesse Bransford, Susan Aberth, and Karsten Krejcarek for introducing her work to me and telling me about this show).

Christopher McKenney

Christopher McKenney 2014

I'm always attracted to imagery about the occult that feels elevated and elegant. Christopher McKenney's photographs approach the topic with a quiet refinement that's rare to come by. I love his muted color palette, his knife-sharp fashion sense, and the optical trickery he employs to create these pictures of witches, initiates, phantoms, and other peculiar creatures. He is a true master of illusion.

Doubling Down on Twin Peaks

Greg Ruth "#6 This is the Water..." 2017

HellooOOooOoOoooOOOoo!

If your household is anything like mine, you've been living in your own little Twin Peaks lodge of late, and loving every second of it. We're over halfway through the season now, and I still can't say enough good things about it. It is even more beautiful, more astonishing, and more fully realized than I could have hoped. One of my favorite quotes is from Tom Stoppard: "Let your imagination run riot." Big bravo to Showtime for allowing David Lynch and Mark Frost to do just that.

With that said, I thought I'd share a few other Twin Peaks-adjacent items which have been flipping my log of late:

First up is this glorious series of graphite interpretations of several of the show's key elements and characters drawn by the seemingly unstoppable Greg Ruth. (Incidentally he is also doing the covers for another of my favorite stories: Akata Witch and its forthcoming sequel, Akata Warrior, by the fabulous fabulist, Nnedi Okorafor.)

I'm also currently addicted to Diane, a Twin Peaks podcast that examines each new episode with an esoteric eye. It's created by a group of exceptionally smart and good-spirited siblings from Brighton, and the juxtaposition of their warm voices and their unsettling content is as delicious as a damn fine cup of coffee being sipped beneath a shroud of mist. (And shout-out to my friend Rachel for turning me onto it!)

Have also been in sonic thrall of this fan-made Spotify mix, Nighttime at the Roadhouse, which features music that's either on the same wavelength as, or featured on, the show.

Been desperately trying not splurge on any of the David Lynch designed merch from the official Twin Peaks shop, but my gods it's difficult. I mean COME ON. (Though I did, I confess, buy his beans.)

Lucky for me, this excellent Interfaith Voices interview with Lynch conducted by my friend and occult scholar, Mitch Horowitz, costs nothing to listen to, but is rich in wisdom.

Lastly, I imagine many of you have read Lynch's book, Catching the Big Fish, already, but if not I recommend you remedy that posthaste. It's a spare but weighty tome on Transcendental Meditation and creativity, and it truly changed my life when I first read it a number of years ago. Unmissable for anyone interested in the relationship between art and the unconscious.

NONEXISTENT!!!

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Pilar Zeta

Pilar Zeta  from "Codex Magica" series

Much as I love dusty, leather-bound esoterica, I'm always excited by those who view the enchanted realms through a more contemporary lens. Pilar Zeta does a lot of design for album covers, and this infuses her magical imagery with a breath of fresh flair. I especially love her fluorescent 1980s spin on secret society scenes via her "Codex Magica" series. Simon Magus Le Bon anyone?

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Dreamers Awake exhibition!

Edith Rimmington "Museum" 1951

I see that the "Dreamers Awake" exhibition has been up for a whole month already, but better a late post than never I say! If you're in London, you won't want to miss this summer surrealist stew. It contains work by over 50 female artists including some of my very favorites such as Leonora Carrington, Leonor Fini, Dorothea Tanning, Kiki Smith, and Edith Rimmington. Full details:

Dreamers Awake

28 June – 17 September 2017

White Cube Bermondsey

Curated by Susanna Greeves

White Cube is pleased to present ‘Dreamers Awake’, a group show at White Cube Bermondsey which explores the enduring influence of Surrealism through the work of more than fifty women artists. The exhibition brings together sculpture, painting, collage, photography and drawing from the 1930s to the present day and includes work by well-known Surrealist figures as well as contemporary and emerging artists.

Woman has a powerful presence in Surrealism. She is the object of masculine desire and fantasy; a harpy, goddess or sphinx; a mystery or threat. Often, she appears decapitated, distorted, trussed up. Fearsome or fetishized, she is always the ‘other’. From today’s perspective, gender politics can seem the unlikely blind spot of a movement that declared war on patriarchal society, convention and conformity.

Nonetheless, from its earliest days female artists have been drawn to Surrealism’s emphasis on personal and artistic freedoms and to the creative potential that the exploration of the unconscious offered. By focusing on the work of women artists, ‘Dreamers Awake’ hopes to show how, through art foregrounding bodily experience, the symbolic woman of Surrealism is refigured as a creative, sentient, thinking being.

Repossessed by its owner, the fragmented, headless body of Surrealism becomes a vehicle for irony, resistance, humour and self-expression. Ranging beyond those who might identify themselves as Surrealists, the show traces the influence of the movement where artists delve into the unconscious; create alternative realities; invent fetishistic objects, such as Mona Hatoum’s Jardin Public (1993), that subvert the objectification of the female form, or, in the spirit of Claude Cahun’s iconic black and white self-portraits from the 1930s, play with gender identity as a fluid construct.

The exhibition features works by women associated with the Surrealist movement – including Eileen Agar, Leonora Carrington, Lee Miller, Dorothea Tanning and Leonor Fini – who until recently, were often characterised simply as muses, models or mistresses. Works by Francesca Woodman, Hannah Wilke, Louise Bourgeois, Rosemarie Trockel, Kiki Smith, Paloma Varga Weisz, Mona Hatoum, Tracey Emin and Sarah Lucas, among others, testify to the far-reaching influence of Surrealism through the intervening decades. Surrealism meets punk in the work of Linder, and infuses the separate cultural heritages of Iraqi artist Hayv Kahraman and Japanese painter Tomoko Kashiki.

Today, one hundred years since Apollinaire coined the term ‘surrealisme’, the unconscious mind is familiar territory, and the word ‘surreal’ itself debased to the point of meaninglessness. But in a world preoccupied with the politics of identity, in which the advances of previous generations must be continually defended, we see the continued – even renewed - relevance of surrealist ideas and strategies to a generation of emerging artists, including Sascha Braunig, Jordan Kasey, Loie Hollowell, Kelly Akashi, and Caitlin Keogh.

A fully illustrated catalogue with an essay by art historian Dr Alyce Mahon and exhibition curator Susanna Greeves, is published on the occasion of the exhibition. 

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Spiritualism & Art Symposium in Lily Dale

Your favorite spirit photographer and mine, Shannon Taggart, has curated an incredible-looking symposium on Spiritualism and art. It will be taking place on Friday, July 28th in Lily Dale, NY AKA the world's mecca for Spiritualism. Sounds like Heaven on Earth. Here are the full details:

The Science of Things Spiritual:
Seven Illustrated Presentations
Assembly Hall, 9am – 6pm

Spiritualism & the Arts:
An Evening of Music, Movies, & Mediumship
Lily Dale Auditorium, 8pm

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–>  PRE-PAY $60 FOR BOTH EVENTS HERE 

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Other options include:
Single Lecture: $15 at the door
Morning Session: $30 at the door
Afternoon Session: $40 at the door
Evening event: $15 at the door

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–>  Learn About Lily Dale   

–> Gate Fee Info

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9:00 am – Spiritualism: A Timeline, with Malcolm Cobley, award-winning filmmaker and multi-media producer
An illustrated presentation that traces the story of Spiritualism from the dawn of human history to the present day; in context with the evolution that was taking place concurrently in the areas of science, technology, religion and unprecedented social change.

10:00 am – Ancient Mediumship: Oracles in Antiquity, with Leonard George, Ph.D., author and Professor of Psychology at Capilano University, North Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Spiritualism arose in the mid-19th century, but attempts to contact a spiritual realm date back to remote antiquity. This presentation will survey the various sorts of oracles in the ancient Mediterranean world, and consider how they resembled and differed from mediums today.

11:00 am – Architectural Spirits in Lily Dale, with Steve Bass
Architect Steve Bass, whose specialties include classical architecture and sacred geometry, examines and analyzes Lily Dale’s unique Victorian architecture. This discussion reveals surprising facts about the structure of the town, and also explains why Lily Dale, New York is one of the most unique communities in America.

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Break – 12:30 – 2pm

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2:00 pm – Harmonies Heard & Unheard:  An Exploration of Mediumistic Music, with Marjorie Roth, Ph.D., Professor of Music History and Studio Flute at Nazareth College in Rochester, NY
An exploration of the sources of musical inspiration and what it means to receive music “from Spirit”.  This talk will begin with the philosophical underpinnings of music from Antiquity and end by considering the experiences of two inspired composers, one now in Spirit herself. Topics covered will include Boethius, Rosemary Brown, and the Music of the Spheres.

3:00 pm – Spiritualism and Gender in the 19th Century, with Cristina Zaccarini, PhD., Associate Professor, Co-Director of Asian Studies, Adelphi University
This presentation will discuss the ways that gender impacted contact with spirits in the 19th century United States. It will explore how men and women, due to differing cultural precepts regarding loss and mourning, were drawn to the world of spirit, as well as the ways that women could carve out power through mediumship.

4:00 pm – Spiritualism and the Mystery of Modern Art, with Massimo Introvigne, Managing Director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR)
A significant number of artists believed that their hands were actually guided by the spirits of the deceased or various supernatural beings. Both the academia and the media often censored these relations between modern art and esotericism. This presentation will show examples of Spiritualist artists who played a crucial role in the very birth of modern art, a history that is almost unknown to the general public.

5:00 pm – A History of Parapsychology, with George P. Hansen, author of The Trickster and the Paranormal
The scientific investigation of psychic phenomena will be discussed—from the rise of Spiritualism in 1848, to the founding of the Society for Psychical Research in 1882, to laboratory experiments and the U.S. government’s psychic spying program of the 1970s and 1980s. Examples of research will be presented, including some from Hansen’s own work.  The future of parapsychology will also be addressed.

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EVENING EVENT – 8:00PM @ Lily Dale Auditorium

Spiritualism & the Arts: An Evening of Music, Movies, & Mediumship

Join us for musical performances, short films, and a live spirit art experiment!

Tribeca Film Festival director and creator of The Midnight Archive Ronni Thomas screens a series of short films on the topics of Spiritualism, parapsychology, and dream research.

Broadway composer/performer Doug Skinner presents a live program drawn from his rare archive of music attributed to fairies and aliens, music collected from séances and channeling, fairy tunes from Scotland and Norway, and the channeled piano music of the English medium Rosemary Brown.

Mediums Susan Barnes and Lauren Thibodeau, aka “The Psychic Professors”, collaborate on a unique message service that combines clairvoyant mediumship and the creation of spirit art.

Learn More

• July 28, 2017
• • Lily Dale Assembly
• Go to event page

 

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Artemis in the Air

Carrie Ann Baade "Artemis Creatrix" 2015

I've had a deep connection to Artemis since I was a child (and long-time readers probably know this as I've posted many artists' homages to her over the years). Though she is a constant presence for me - a continuous low-grade lunar hum in my veins - she makes herself known to me in far more obvious ways when she needs to. Or when I need her to, more like.

Some of you are aware that I have just started a 6-month sabbatical from my day job. It's been an exciting decision, and one I know is the right one for me at this point in time. I have a lot of writing and healing and exploring to do, and I'm grateful to have been given the encouragement and support to be able to do it. That said, there is no small amount of anxiety that comes with big change, and in my case, little doubt goblins that creep in occasionally to make me second guess myself.

Artemis has been slaying these goblins for me, arrow by arrow.

She's been reminding me to trust my wild instincts and independence, and reassuring me by turning up in various guises and synchronicities over the past few days:

• Via a bottle of Artemis wine, given to me by a co-worker as kind send-off
• On NPR in between morning news segments in the form of a Jonathan Richman's "Because Her Beauty is Raw and Wild," an Artemisian song I had just fallen in love with a few weeks prior
• In an email from The Seneca White Deer, a non-profit I've supported for years, announcing that they will soon be reinstating public tours. (I plan on going as a pilgrimage in the fall, and finally visiting my spirit animal in person)

...to name but a few.

This painting by Carrie Ann Baade is a splendid interpretation of her. In Baade's own words, "'Artemis the Creatrix' is a goddess of creation and inspiration who calls forth something from nothing and transforms it into matter."

Artemis, thank you for your guidance, your transformative magic, and for the luminous, creative energy you shine upon and through me. Blessed be.

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Esther Sarto

Esther Sarto

These days it's all Twin Peaks all the time Chez Phantasmaphile, so my tastes are running even more toward the unsettling than usual - and that's saying something. I am currently infatuated with all of Esther Sarto's work, especially her psychedelicate paintings of weird woodland gatherings. These paintings are erotic and odd (oddrotic?), populated with pink-fleshed beings and their panoply of body parts. It feels like a glimpse into some sort of commune where secrets are exchanged and the owls are not what they seem.

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Salon de la Rose+Croix show at the Guggenheim!

Jean Delville "Death of Orpheus" 1893

I have been counting down the days - nay, months - for this show to open, and it's nearly here! The Guggenheim's "Mystical Symbolism: The Salon de la Rose+Croix in Paris, 1892-1897" will showcase nearly 40 Symbolist works originally featured in Joséphin Péladan's legendary occult-flavored Parisian exhibitions. It's almost too much for me to bear.  I'm too giddy to expound on my giddiness, so here is the info in full detail:

Mystical Symbolism: The Salon de la Rose+Croix in Paris, 1892-1897
June 30 - October 4, 2017

In 1892 Joséphin Péladan (1858–1918), a Rosicrucian, author, and critic, organized the first Salon de la Rose+Croix. This annual exhibition in Paris showcased mystical Symbolist art, particularly a hermetic, numinous vein of Symbolism that was favored by Péladan and dominant during the 1890s, a time when religious and occult practices often intertwined. Mysterious, visionary, and mythical subjects, often drawn from literary sources, prevailed in the art at the salons. Images of femmes fragiles and fatales, androgynous creatures, chimeras, and incubi were the norm, as were sinuous lines, attenuated figures, and antinaturalistic forms. Cosmopolitan in reach, the salons featured artists from Belgium, Finland, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland, such as Antoine Bourdelle, Jean Delville, Rogelio de Egusquiza, Charles Filiger, Ferdinand Hodler, Fernand Khnopff, Alphonse Osbert, Armand Point, Gaetano Previati, Georges Rouault, Carlos Schwabe, Alexandre Séon, Jan Toorop, Ville Vallgren, and Félix Vallotton. Mystical Symbolism: The Salon de la Rose+Croix in Paris, 1892–1897 will capture a fascinating, transnational cross section of artists—some well known, others less so—and invite a fresh look at and new scholarship on late 19th-century Symbolist art.

Organized by Vivien Greene, Senior Curator, 19th- and Early 20th-Century Art, with the assistance of Ylinka Barotto, Curatorial Assistant, Mystical Symbolism will feature about 40 works culled from the six Salon de la Rose+Croix exhibitions as well as pertinent historical documents. A musical component with pieces by Erik Satie and others will complement the presentation and underscore how composers played key roles in the development of the movement. The exhibition will highlight central artworks shown at each salon in order to tease out themes such as the role of Orpheus, the adulation of the Primitives, and the cult of personality that developed around figures including Richard Wagner and Péladan himself. These carefully chosen works and groupings, in turn, will allow for an in-depth exploration of the diverse and sometimes opposing concepts that informed Symbolism in the 1890s. A fully illustrated catalogue will comprise essays on the salon and its main themes (Greene); the contemporary reception of the salon (Jean-David Jumeau-Lafond, independent scholar); and the connections between Symbolists tenets and those of early 20th-century avant-garde artists (Kenneth E. Silver, Professor of Art History, New York University). It will also contain a selected bibliography and artist entries authored by emerging scholars.

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So! Many! Things!

I usually try to avoid list posts, but there is so much to tell you and I'm sheepishly behind on blogging, so here's a heap of wonder for you today:

• Was very honored to get to write the forward for Literary Witches, written by Taisia Kitaiskaia and illustrated by friend and art mage, Katy Horan. It's out in October (natch), and available for pre-order. Having a sneak peak at it, I can tell you it is ridiculously beautiful through and through. Please support these gifted ghouls.
• Also thrilled to be included in friend and occasional collaborator Kristen Sollee's badass book, Witches, Sluts, Feminists: Conjuring the Sex Positive. It's a sharp and insightful survey about the relationship between witches and women's issues, and it's a fire-starter indeed.
• Catland, Brooklyn's main occult bookshop and event space, could really use your love and money. Please support them, and keep this kind and crucial community thriving.
• My giant-hearted, hare-brained pal, Sara Benincasa, is raising $500K for refugees and also to get Neil Gaiman to read the Cheesecake Factory menu in its entirety. Both are excellent causes and you can support them in one fell swoop here.
• My beloved dude, Matthew Freeman, has a new performance art/theatre piece opening tomorrow night, and it is unmissable. "This Is Normal" provides a time to sit in (sorely needed) silent contemplation with your fellow humans and think about who we all actually are. It's part of the "This Is Not Normal" festival at Williamsburg's legendary Brick Theater. Three shows only: Thu June 15 @ 9pm, Sat June 24 @ 2pm, Wed June 28 @ 7pm. Tickets and info here.
• SAVE THE DATE for the Occult Humanities Conference on Oct 13-15 at NYU, co-organized per usual by myself and my left hand man, Jesse Bransford. More details very soon.

JOY! MADNESS! MAGIC!

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Wonder Woman

Hello, I saw Wonder Woman, and I had some feelings about it.

"Beg the Raven" Studio Sale Tomorrow!

Well this is exciting. Some of my very favorite artists are getting together tomorrow and selling their work for less than $100 per piece. Here are the details:

Beg the Raven

Beg the Raven is a one day, pop-up studio sale at 56 Bogart, Brooklyn (L train to Morgan Avenue, in Bushwick). Each artist will present a number of works including paintings, drawings, sculpture, photographs and artist books — all at a range of affordable prices less than $100.

56 Bogart St., Lower Level
(Corner of Harrison and Bogart)
Brooklyn, NY

Saturday May 27th, 3-8 PM

Alessandro Keegan
Bob Szantyr
Elisa Soliven
Jaqueline Cedar
Jennifer Sullivan
JJ Manford
Jon Lutz
Elizabeth Insogna
Max Razdow
Vanessa Albury

http://www.thesphinxnyc.com/beg-the-raven/
https://www.facebook.com/events/446633135692512/

For further information, contact: [email protected]

Sounds dreamy. Do pop by!

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Tonight: Digital Witchcraft Panel at The Alchemist’s Kitchen

Very excited to be participating in this panel on Digital Witchcraft at The Alchemist's Kitchen. It starts at 7:30pm, and tickets are available online or at the door. More details:

Join OcCulture Talks this month as we bring witches of Web 2.0 into the physical space to talk witchcraft, social media and community building.

We’ll be chatting with women across the community about how they connect, leverage the digital space, and launch web-based businesses that deal in the occult.

Joining us are:
Pam Grossman - the force behind Phantasmaphile and What is a Witch, who recently released the best selling WitchEmoji pack

Lindsay Mack - Tarot reader of Wild Soul Healing and tarot instructor know for her focus on healing through tarot

Jeanna Kadlec - astrologer and tarot reader with a focus on working with businesses.

We’ll hold a roundtable discussion with these powerful women, and open our conversation to a Q&A afterward.

Join us for a slice of digital craft IRL!

$15 advance
$20 at the door

 Looking forward to seeing you there!

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Mystic Medusa Astrology Offer

I sometimes get approached to offer deals or ads on here, and I almost always decline. But I've been a fan of Mystic Medusa's astrology site for years now, thanks to her wit, knowledge, and fabulous taste in art. Delighted to be able to offer Phantasmaphile readers 20% off any of her subscriptions - just use coupon code "juno" when you check out. Happy horoscoping!

Charming Disaster's "Cautionary Tales"

I feel lucky to call myself a fan and a friend of the supernaturally-inclined band, Charming Disaster.  Their songs are catchy and clever, and each feels like its own tightly-crafted short story stuffed to the gills with sonic seances, tragicomic circus acts, nocturnal murders, and fractured folklore. (If you haven't heard their shimmering afterlife anthem, Ghost Story, on Welcome to Night Vale, then you must remedy that posthaste.) 

Well joy of joys, they have a brand new album out called Cautionary Tales, and hand on heart I haven't been able to stop listening to it since its release. It's a musical jewel box, steeped in myth and mystique, with lush orchestration and their signature literary lyrics. It has tunes about lunar deities, star-crossed espionage, wicked waltzes, and the elegance of entropy. It spans genres as well, with bits of folk noir, slo-motown, and baroque punk sprinkled throughout. In sum: addictive, fanciful fun.

My favorite tracks keep shifting because the entire album is so scrumptious, but I will say Phosphorescent Lilies in particular makes my bones ache with longing beauty. And a pox on Marvel if they don't license Ragnarok for their next Thor 3 promo.

So if you're like me and you like your love letters burnt at the edges, your tarot twisted, and your horror stories Gorey, then you will love Charming Disaster's "Cautionary Tales." Listen to it on your next road trip across Bifrost.

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António Pedro

António Pedro "Rapto no paisagem povoada" 1947

In March we had the good fortune of going to Portugal, and spent a week drifting through museums and church ruins in Lisbon and occultic estates in Sintra. I keep meaning to post about all we saw and did and ate, but two months have gone by and here we are. The fortunate byproduct of waiting to write about a trip is that the highlights keep resurfacing in memory, and it's these which I feel compelled to share with you from time to time.

First up is this striking painting by António Pedro. I encountered it in the splendid Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, and can't stop thinking about its unsettling beauty. Pedro was one of the primary Portuguese surrealists, and his work is infused with a rubbery sort of mythology that is whimsical and disturbing at once. Who are these maidens, and why are they being abducted by aquiline monsters? What is this significance of the harlequin horse? Is the tree woman Daphne, or some other metamorphic heroine? Like the best art, it makes my mind teem with questions, and my heart relish the mystery.

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pascALEjandro exhibition!

pascALEjandro

A new exhibition of collaborative drawings by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Pascale Montandon-Jodorowsky (under the portmanteau pascALEjandro) opens tomorrow at Paris' Azzedine Alaïa Gallery.  Called "L'Androgyne Alchemique," the show contains over 100 works which the couple have created over the span of their relationship.  The images are chromatic, playful explorations of esoteric concepts and magical imagery, including spiritual love and the alchemical rebis to which the title refers.  It's up until June 11th, and seems to be a true homage to the City of Love where it is taking place - and which, arguably, dwells within all of us. 

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WitchEmoji is #1!

WHOA!  WitchEmoji is the #1 sticker pack in the App Store!  Thank you so much to those who have downloaded it - I'm so grateful for the support.

A couple quick reminders:

1. If you're not familiar with stickers or are having trouble finding it in your phone, installation instructions can be found in the FAQ section of witchemoji.com
2. If you downloaded it and you dig it, would you please leave a review in the App Store?  It really, really helps.
3. And would you kindly also spread the word?  If WitchEmoji's momentum keeps up, it will mean I can add more stickers and expand to other platforms (e.g. Android) down the road.

Big BIG thanks again for the WitchEmoji love!  I hope it brings you lots of good magick.

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Introducing WitchEmoji!

I'm over the moon to announce that my WitchEmoji are now available in the App Store!

WitchEmoji is an iMessage sticker pack for all of your witchy needs.  It contains images of witches, spell craft objects, familiars, and magic symbols in a variety of skin tones and colors.  Use it to make your texts more magical!

WitchEmoji was created out of my desire to have delightful witchy/Wiccan/Pagan images to use in iMessage.  I couldn't find any I was satisfied with, so I decided to make some myself (with the help of one amazing emoji designer).  There are 80 stickers in this pack, so plenty to choose from.  You can see more samples of what's included here.  I hope you love them as much as I do.

Read more about WitchEmoji here!

Like WitchEmoji on Facebook here!

Download WitchEmoji here!

And if you dig it, please give it some nice, shiny ratings in the App Store, then kindly help spread the word.

Thank you and BEST WITCHES!

"As Above, So Below: Portals, Visions, Spirits & Mystics" exhibition

Dubliners, you're in for a treat.  The "As Above, So Below: Portals, Visions, Spirits & Mystics" exhibition just opened at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, and it's a comprehensive survey of spiritual art work.  If you were sorry to miss my "Language of the Birds: Occult and Art" show at NYU last year, this seems like a great, UK-side equivalent.  Lots of heavy hitters and details in here, so I'll let the show statement speak for itself:

As Above, So Below: Portals, Visions, Spirits & Mystics
13 April - 27 August 2017

Featuring an exciting selection of modern masterworks and landmark contemporary art works by Hilma af Klint, Wassily Kandinsky, Steve McQueen, Bruce Nauman, Sigmar Polke, Cameron - many being shown for the first time in Ireland - and new commissions created specifically for this exhibition by Linder, Matt Copson, Stephan Doitschinoff, Alan Butler and others.

Opening with a Vedic spiritual blessing at 12.15pm on Thursday 13 April 2017, IMMA presents one of its most ambitious and compelling shows exploring how the spiritual endures in our everyday lives. In particular, As Above, So Below considers the role played by certain spiritualist and alternative doctrines, such as the occult or mysticism, in the creation of abstract painting from its origins to the present digital age.

The arc of this exhibition spans a hundred years from the abstract masterworks of Kandinsky, af Klint and Kupka to contemporary work by Steve McQueen and Bruce Nauman and new commissions by Alan Butler and Linder among others. As Above, So Below resists becoming a comprehensive survey that traces the role of art and spirituality however. Instead, it presents perspectives on spirituality from a range of unique viewpoints in over 200 works, many of which have never been seen in Ireland before. It extends beyond the gallery space with new works made specifically for the IMMA site and a series of performances, events, talks and film screenings taking place during the exhibition. The exhibition’s historical gaze has a particular focus on female artists from the last century whose work remained uncovered until recently in the now shifting narrative of art history.

The title, As Above, So Below, echoes an often quoted saying, employed by artists, poets, writers and astrologers alike, as a means to describe and understand the mysterious but familiar world around us. To look at spirituality in such secular times is a provocation in itself, and the exhibition traces and questions the genesis of deep religious, mystical and occult beliefs that continue to shape the ideas of contemporary artists today. Writing in the 1960s, the critic Susan Sontag claimed that, “Every era has to reinvent the project of ‘spirituality’ for itself”, and through this exhibition IMMA asks what the project of spirituality looks like in 2017.

Transcending the limitations of what is traditionally perceived as ‘spiritual’, this exhibition embraces the occult, the otherworld, human consciousness, mysticism and ritual, creating a space to reflect and explore these gateways, or portals, to wonder.

As Above, So Below resists becoming a comprehensive survey and is presented instead as a series of thematic chapters that each explore a different aspect of spirituality. The exhibition extends beyond the gallery space with new works made specifically for the IMMA site and a series of performances, events, talks and film screenings taking place during the exhibition.

FEATURED ARTISTS
Hilma af Klint | Kenneth Anger | David Beattie | Nora Berman | Annie Besant | Agnieszka Brzezanska | Alan Butler | James Lee Byars | Cameron | Marcus Coates | Ira Cohen | Ithell Colquhoun | Matt Copson | Stephan Doitschinoff | Hayden Dunham | Stephen Dunne |Susan Hiller | Koo Jeong A. | Alejandro Jodorowsky | Wassily Kandinsky | Rachid Koraïchi | Emma Kunz | Frantisek Kupka | Paul Laffoley | Liliane Lijn | Linder | Josiah McElheny | Steve McQueen | Henri Michaux | Pascale Montandon-Jodorowsky | Pádraic E. Moore (curatorial advisor) | Bruce Nauman | Austin Osman Spare | Sigmar Polke | The Propeller Group | Patrick Pye | John Russell | Eoghan Ryan | Aura Satz | Suzanne Treister | Grace Weir, amongst others.

A fully-illustrated book is published to accompany the exhibition which features contributions from Erik Davis, Jennifer Higgie, Alejandro Jodorowsky and Pascale Montandon-Jodorowsky, Dr Tina Kinsella, Linder, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Rachael Thomas, Sam Thorne and Maurice Tuchman, amongst others. Price €20 available to buy from the IMMA Shop.

(And thanks to the several of you who reached out to make sure I knew about this).

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Happy 100th Birthday, Leonora Carrington!

Today would have been Leonora Carrington's 100th birthday.  I've spent many of my own words explaining how important she is to me, and why.  Getting to show her painting, "El Nigromante," in my "Language of the Birds" exhibition was one of the highlights of my life, and one of my most treasured possessions is the elephant ear plant that I grew out of a cutting from her garden, which was given to me by a dear friend.  She is, to put it simply, one of my matron saints.

Today, I'll let her speak for herself though:

“The true duty of the artist is to know what she is doing and transmit her knowledge with precision. The artist must always lift up the skirts of Venus or her twin-sister Medusa; if she is incapable of that, she should consider changing professions.

Let’s thus seek out the possibility of having subtle organs that will allow us to spread a beneficial magic or receive it while cultivating the protections against the multiple venoms of the invisible world. It is only in the strange magic ocean that we can find salvation for ourselves and our sick planet.”

- Her response to a questionnaire for L’Art magique, 1957

And what a way with words she had.  Though most are familiar with her exquisite, occultic paintings, her wonderful - and often hilarious - writing is finally getting its due, thanks to several books which are being released in celebration of her centennial:

 

"The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington" is out from Dorothy today, and it has a lovely intro by Kathryn Davis. 

 

Later this month is her memoir, "Down Below", with an intro by Marina Warner, and her illustrated children's book, "The Milk of Dreams" is out next month, both from New York Review Books.  Read them if you like twisted whimsy and surrealism with a feminist bent.

 

If you're in the UK, today also marks the release of "The Surreal Life of Leonora Carrington", a biography of sorts by her cousin, Joanna Moorhead, as covered in the Guardian here.

 

And I imagine many of you have read her jewel of a novella, "The Hearing Trumpet," already.  But worth a reminder, just in case. 

 

Finally, I must mention once more that if you'd like to learn about her life and work, you can do no better than the splendid and insightful monograph, "Leonora Carrington: Surrealism, Alchemy, and Art," written by the greatest Carrington scholar on the planet, Dr. Susan L. Aberth.  Come for the pictures, stay for the prose.

 

Happy birthday, Leonora, wherever you are, whomever you were.  I'm so grateful to have your art and your witchly gifts in my life.  Thank you for enchanting us all with your blazing brazenness and bizarre beauty.  Blessed be.

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