AT THE EDGE OF BEYOND: ALCHEMY, BIOPUNK & OCCULT BLOOD AT THE MUSEUM OF WITCHCRAFT AND MAGIC
Wednesday 27 March, 2024
The Museum
of Witchcraft and Magic has invited Bioart Coven
founder WhiteFeather Hunter to curate its 2024 exhibition.A Canadian
technofeminist transdisciplinary artist and scholar
working in a multiplicity of media, which often operate
without conventional notions of art, science and magical
practice; Dr Hunter has recently completed a PhD in Biological
Art at Symbiotica, The University of Western Australia.Her doctoral
research into developing a novel menstrual serum for tissue
engineering experiments was spotlighted by Merck/ Sigma-Aldrich for
International Day of Women and Girls in Science 2021 as part of
their #nextgreatimpossible campaign:
her work has received many awards and accolades.Several
of her works, which debuted last year at Art Laboratory
Berlin, were produced as part of Hunter’s doctoral research in
tissue engineering and laboratory magic using human stem cells
derived from taboo body materials—all within the context
of contemporary feminist witchcraft.She
returns to the Museum to install an exhibition showcasing
her recent works, along with selected objects from the museum
and other prestigious collections including Genesis
P.Orridge's / Sigil for Derek Jarman, and mysterious material
from the hermetic Richel-Eldermans Collection.The
exhibition, Arcanum Sanguinis: Occult Blood will
span the downstairs gallery and upper floor display rooms and will
also include a video / textile piece she produced during
her previous residency in 2022. Worked as a complex
composite combining digital and organic
matter, Palimpsest presages her later work
via its interrogation of MWM archival material
transmitted to the audience as tactile ghost pages, representing her
scholarly approach to research.For Arcanum
Sanguinis, Hunter’s curation of museum objects and
artefacts that accompany her work speak to the symbolism, beliefs and
practices that have underpinned the development of the discipline of biomedicine
over the centuries. Though ‘magic’ and ‘science’ are often
imagined to be opposing realms, Hunter has arranged a visual thematic
narrative to show some of the subtle overlaps that exist between
them, purposing the coalescence of material in unexpected ways.
Hunter’s machine embroidered and blood-stained lab coat
complements a hand-embroidered ritual robe that features a caduceus
symbol. The caduceus, a double-snake helical arrangement around a
staff originates from ancient fertility goddess worship but is now
best known for its association with medical institutions.Considerable
attention has been given to the proven parallels between art and
magical practice, to the extent that they may in fact
seem quite commonplace. Little attention has been awarded
to the correspondences betwixt scientific practice and magic. In
the instances that they exist, they are considered to
be taboo ...by The Academy.In Arcanum
Sanguinis: Occult Blood, Hunter shows that from folk magic
to alchemy to contemporary biotechnological advance, our cultural
perceptions of health and the body have always been moderated through
ritual and influenced by biopolitics.Arcanum
Sanguinis: Occult Blood by WhiteFeather Hunter opens Monday,
April 1, 2024 and will run the full season until October 31, 2024.Distributed by https://pressat.co.uk/